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Class of Eighty-Five 

Amherst College 




JTT Biographies and Records Gathered 
-" in Connection with the Twenty-fifth 
Reunion of the Class, held in June, 1910, 
Together with the '85 Address to the 
Trustees and Their Reply : : : : 






Springfield, Mass. 

John C. Otto, Printer 

1911 



INDEX 



Page 

Introduction 5 

The Secretary's Personal Word. . , 7 

The Eighty-Five Plan 8 

The Trustees and the '85 Plan 12 

The Garman Memorial Portrait 19 

The Men of Eighty-Five 23 

Record of Reunions since 1895 101 

Illustrations: 

The Twenty-Fifth Reunion Group Frontispiece 

Fifteenth Reunion Group Facing page 101 

Twentieth Reunion Group Facing page 105 

Victorious Ball Team, 1910 Facing page 109 

The '85 Address, with Magazine and Newspaper Articles, 

Following page 112 



A WORD OF INTRODUCTION 

If we omit the pamphlets which were printed to 
record the Triennial and Quinquennial reunions and 
the score of circular letters which have emanted from 
the secretary's desk, our class has issued only one book, 
that commemorating our tenth anniversary. In that 
book we find fairly complete records of our members, 
both graduate and non-graduate, up to the summer 
of 1895. • 

In presenting this book, which marks the completion 
of our first twenty-five years "out of the hen coop," 
we have endeavored to state the main facts in the 
history of every man ever connected with eighty-five, 
excepting the four men who were with us for a while, 
but elected to be counted with other classes, with which 
they either graduated or were more closely affiliated. 

Since we first came into existence as a class, 119 
names have appeared on our list, including Liang, 
(honorary). As above stated, four are counted else- 
where, viz: Street, '86; Peck, '86; Wheelright, '82; and 
Bridgman, '84. 

Twenty-three have died: F. S. Deane, Gardner, 
Hallock, Hawks, Hinman, Houghton, Hubbard, Hunt, 
Hodsdon, Edward Miller, L. B. Miller, Morse, Phelps, 
Peabody, Scarborough, Stearns, Symons, E. A. Tucker, 
E. B. Tucker, Waite, W. E. Williams, J. C. Wilson and 
Preston Wilson. 

Ninety-two names are now on our list, of whom 
sixty-seven are graduates, sixteen non-graduates who 
were with us more than three terms, nine who were 
with us less than three terms, and one who is honorary. 



Amherst College 



Some men we have been unable to reach, even though 
we have tried every known expedient except detectives. 
And some of those whose addresses are known have 
failed to respond to repeated requests for personal data 
for use in this book. The book committee acknowledges 
with sincere thanks the faithful efforts of the various 
members who have helped collect the data herein 
contained. 

The inclusion in the volume of the '85 Address to the 
Trustees, along with articles bearing upon it, is made 
possible by the generosity of Prentice, who has con- 
tributed copies of this pamphlet for binding with the 
class book. The extraordinary interest which the Ad- 
dress aroused in educational circles far and wide war- 
ranted us, we members of the committee thought, in 
delaying the publication of our book that the class 
might have this material in convenient and permanent 
form. 

Lancaster's little story of the inception and develop- 
ment of the '85 idea will, we believe, be enjoyed and 
appreciated by the members of the class. 



F. E. Whitman, 1 ^ 
J. E. Tower, J 



Class of Eighty-Five 



THE SECRETARY'S PERSONAL WORD 

Dear Classmates : 

My poor oral acknowledgement of your beautiful gift 
to me at our reunion was wholly inadequate. Even 
now that I have overcome the state of absolute surprise 
in which I found myself on that Sunday evening, I 
am unable fully to express my appreciation of your 
good will and generosity. No class secretary, as far 
as I learn, has ever received more generous — and *at 
the same time, more undeserved — recognition than you 
have accorded me. 

The mahogany table on which I write was your 
thoughtful gift at our wedding, nineteen years ago, 
and I value it more and more as the years pass. To 
this, you have now added this choice reunion gift of 
silver. I am very proud of it. When my boy goes 
to Amherst, as he expects to, I hope he may become 
the member of as good a class as ours, and when I can 
no longer use my desk and plate they shall be given 
to him to show another generation the spirit of eighty- 
five. 

Loyally yours, 

FRANK E. WHITMAN. 



Amherst College 



THE EIGHTY-FIVE PLAN 

The class of 1885 has made history for the American 
colleges. Fifteen years of widespread dissatisfaction 
with the educational work done in our colleges, endless 
discussion of the methods and failings of the best teach- 
ing schools of this country, serious and whimsical 
criticisms of college education and college products have 
all been polarized as if by an electric current by means 
of the now famous Address of the Class of Eighty-five 
to the Trustees of Amherst College. Order has come 
out of chaos. 

Just when and where this movement started is not 
known to the writer of this article. It seems to have 
originated in the brain of Prentice and not far from 
Wall Street. What right a lawyer in Wall Street has 
to shake the educational caldron and cause all its seeth- 
ing mass to crystallize in a moment we do not know. 
It happened — and a word must be recorded of its incep- 
tion and development during its first year. 

For the past few years, as the writer happened to 
meet Prentice the latter let fall a word or two which 
showed that he was disturbed and thinking about the 
tendency of educational drift at Amherst College. A 
few words were exchanged from time to time and other 
alumni spoke of talking with Prentice about the same 
thing. It is now evident that the yeast has been work- 
ing for several years. 

Mr. Prentice and Mr. Arthur H. Dakin, '84, came 
to Amherst in June, 1910, with a pretty definite idea 
that some such suggestion as later appeared in the 
Address should be made to the powers at Amherst. 



Class of Eighty-Five 



Prentice had talked it over with prominent members 
of the Board of Trustees and they favored his main 
ideas. At a dinner party at the home of Mrs. Hopkins 
the whole matter was discussed and resolutions were 
submitted and criticised. This formed the basis of the 
more definite propositions which were brought before 
the class by Prentice at headquarters. 

From the discussions of the class it appeared that 
there was the same general feeling of dissatisfaction with 
college education, in the class, as had appeared in vari- 
ous printed criticisms. There was the same disagree- 
ment as to procedure. Discussions by Prentice, Wood- 
ward, Upton, Thayer and others we remember were 
pointed and threw much light on the situation. Ixo 
agreement was reached, however, and Prentice was 
obliged to leave the class reunion before the final meet- 
ing at which his resolutions were adopted. 

Groups of men talked over the resolutions and when 
the class met at South Deerfield for the banquet, time 
was allowed for a free discussion and disposition of 
the ideas which had been put into the form of resolu- 
tions at a previous meeting. Lancaster and Warner 
were appointed to act with Prentice on the committee. 
They reworded the resolutions, shaped them as best 
they could and presented them to the class for adoption. 

There had come about a better understanding of the 
movement, and a feeling of confidence that something 
more than ordinary was inherent in the resolutions and 
hence after an informal discussion the five resolutions 
which later appeared in slightly modified form were 
unanimously adopted by the class of '85. 

It was left for Lancaster to summarize the discussion 
and send it to Prentice with the resolutions as passed. 
Upon this foundation Prentice began to construct what 
has proved the most remarkable educational document 
in many years. He wrote the body of the Address and 



10 Amherst College 



with Thayer, who took the place of Warner on the 
committee, shaped it for the printer. Lancaster wanted 
to raise a few question marks over the meaning of 
classical education as contained in the Address, but 
when it was understood, signed the Address with the 
rest of the committee and it went before the Board 
of Trustees in its present form. They referred it to 
a committee for a report in May. President Harris 
said soon after the meeting of the trustees in May 
that the action of the Board would be published soon, 
but no word of it has come to the writer as yet. Before 
the publication of the Class Book, their action will 
doubtless be public property. 

The Address met with immediate recognition. It was 
evident that the president and faculty were somewhat 
divided over it, judging from what one could find in 
the Student from time to time. President Harris at 
the Boston meeting of alumni evinced no enthusiasm 
over the report. On the other hand, some of the 
professors were warm in its praise. Dr. Thompson 
said in substance that it was a far nobler and more 
valuable gift than the class of 1885 at Harvard made 
to their alma mater. Their gift was one hundred 
thousand dollars. 

Alumni began to write for copies of the address. 
There was general approval. Some did not understand, 
but the idea which could escape none that the work at 
Amherst should be cultural rather than technical all 
favored. Just here the cleavage came, and now all 
see through the rift in the clouds. Daylight came 
through this rift and the difference between college 
and technical education has become patent. 

No one at this time can measure or foretell the influ- 
ence of this Address. Not only the best writers and 
thinkers among educational men, but the president of 
the steel trust, publishers, business men, physicians, 



Class of Eighty-Five 1 1 



lawyers and even the Ex-President of the United States 
have read and publicly commented favorably on this 
Address. Mr, Roosevelt, in the Outlook for Feburary 18, 
1911, says: "The propositions, taken together, repre- 
sent a proposal which, though startling in its novelty 
and in its utter divergence from the ordinary type 
of educational proposal, nevertheless, if put into effect, 
will mean far reaching benefit to our national life." 

The Boston Transcript, the Springfield Republican, 
the leading papers in New York, and many others 
all over the country have devoted a large amount of 
space to editorial comment and discussion of what they 
all agree is a remarkable educational document. Pren- 
tice had an article in Harper's Magazine for May, 1911* 
The address has even found its way across the ocean. 

The history of the Address cannot be written now. 
It is too early to judge its influence. Educational 
progress is the slowest thing on earth. It usually takes 
three hundred years for reforms to pass from the mind 
of the reformer to actual operation in the school-room. 
Amherst may or may not take up these suggestions. 
If not, other colleges will; consciously or unconsciously, 
all colleges will be influenced by it and college education 
will soon feel its effect all along the line. The issues 
are herein concisely and clearly stated. At our fiftieth 
reunion, we shall see more of the effects of the "Eighty- 
five Idea." 



ELLSWORTH G. LANCASTER. 



12 Amherst College 



THE TRUSTEES AND THE '85 PLAN 

Since the foregoing words were written by Lancaster, 
the 1911 Commencement of Amherst College has 
passed, bringing with it the reply of the trustees to 
the '85 Address. Although a brief but vigorous cam- 
paign for the election of Prentice to the Board of Trus- 
tees was not successful (Arthur C. Rounds, '87, being 
chosen), the "Plan" was the paramount issue at the 
Commencement, receiving large attention in the news- 
papers of New York, Boston and other cities, and the 
reply of the Trustees was generally accepted as a 
recognition of the validity and timeliness of Eighty- 
five's main contentions, which the Board, as the event 
seemed to prove, had anticipated. One of the most 
interesting of the summaries of the reply printed in 
the newspapers — the New York Tribune, Times, Evening 
Post, Boston Transcript, etc., — appeared in the Spring- 
field Republican, an extract from which is given here- 
with. The import of the "Plan" quite aside, it and 
its sponsors are credited with having or brought to 
Amherst College, and incidentally to the class of '85, 
a degree of publicity rarely if ever achieved by the 
institution during its history. The burden of the 
published comment upon the "Plan" and the present 
situation as outlined by the Trustees has been decidedly 
favorable. Amherst College now stands before the 
public as an exponent of the broadest, deepest culture. 
Following is an extract from the Republican's editorial: 

"Analysis of the response of the president and trustees of Amherst 
College to the memorial of the class of 1885 leaves one with the strong 
impression that the college is now established more firmly than ever 



Class of Eighty-Five 13 



as an institution of liberal culture with the classical traditions of edu- 
cation dominating the curriculum. Amherst never was dragged very 
far from the old standards; and the 'side shows' never overwhelmed 
the 'main tent.' Perhaps the comparative conservatism of the insti- 
tution in a period when specialization along vocational lines was playing 
all sorts of pranks with many of its old-time competitors was what 
encouraged the memorialists of the class of 1885 to fling forth their 
protest against tendencies most strongly developed elsewhere, and to 
promulgate their program for the future concentration of the energies 
of Amherst upon the problem of giving young men, by means of the 
liberal arts and sciences, intellectual discipline and underlying force 
of character. 

"The response is most cordial and sympathetic, although the presi- 
dent and trustees do not adopt all the recommendations made, by any 
means." 

The Trustees' Reply to the Address: 

The president and trustees of Amherst College recognize in your 
address a gratifying proof of the affectionate care of our alumni for this 
institution as a home of learning from which they have profited and 
desire others to profit. You have done Amherst a great service by 
drawing the attention of the world of education to the policy of the 
college. Your criticism is frank, loyal and helpful. We approve your 
spirit and intent. Your proposals are all the more valuable and gain 
greatly in practical efficiency and application because they urge much 
that the college administration was already putting into operation 
when your memorial was presented; and this advance has been sup- 
plemented by your advice. Our mutual confidence in the policy of 
our college must be strengthened when we find that its alumni urge 
what the president and faculty were adopting, and that its president 
and faculty approve additions to its policy which the alumni propose. 

Your address asks that the instruction be in future a "modified clas- 
sical course"; that the degree of bachelor of science be abolished; that 
the college devote all its means to the increase of teachers' salaries; 
that the number of students be limited; and that entrance be permitted 
only by competitive examination. 

We agree with you that the function of Amherst College is to train 
its students by means of the liberal arts and sciences for a more abundant 
life, and not for a large wage. It should not attempt technical, voca- 
tional or professional education. Amherst has always regarded both 



14 Amherst College 



the humanities and the sciences as necessary to a complete education 
and the true foundation for intellectual discipline and for character. 

A Liberal Education 

A liberal education is not complete unless it enters several fields of 
learning. The value of the ancient classics, that is, the Greek and Latin 
languages and literatures, is recognized. But there are other knowledges 
that are requisite to a liberal education. Science, which has so developed 
in the last fifty years as to be a new creation, is a discipline, is a knowl- 
edge that every educated man should have. This, indeed, is recognized 
in your address when you say, "All would agree that some knowledge 
of science is part of a liberal education," that "in any teaching of the 
experience of the race the sciences have a necessary place." But 
history, philosophy, mathematics, political science, economics, music, 
the literature of one's own tongue, German and Romance languages 
and literature, certainly a liberally educated man should know some- 
thing of these great experiences of the human race. The curriculum 
includes all these subjects, and more than half of the choices of students 
are made from among them. 

Amherst does not, however, leave the selection of studies to the wan- 
dering choice of the student. It has applied this principle to physical 
development as well as to mental training. The studies of the first 
year are prescribed: Latin and Greek, or Latin and a modern language, 
mathematics, English and a science. The second year an ancient 
language and a science are continued, and three subjects are chosen. 
The third and fourth years the student chooses all the subjects he will 
pursue. Thus about one-third of the whole numbers of courses are 
prescribed and two-thirds are elective. In order that some studies 
may be continued beyond the elementary stage, three of the subjects 
elected are studied three years, and one subject two years, while no 
subject is elected for a course of less than one year. The three-year 
courses are called majors, and the two-year course a minor. 

It is important that students have a working knowledge of modern 
languages, since they are more and more needed in actual life. To 
insure this knowledge, those students that have had both Latin and 
Greek will, beginning with the next entering class, be required before 
graduation to translate at sight German or a Romance language (French, 
Spanish or Italian), and those that have had but one ancient language 
to translate both German and a Romance language. 

If a student completes in the first two years the required courses 
n classics, science and the modern languages, the last two years will 
off'er a free and wide choice of subjects whose mastery and advanced 



Class of Eighty-Five 15 



study will be rendered feasible by the ability to consult works in Ger- 
man and a Romance tongue, by familiarity with scientific method 
and classical study on broad lines. 

The B. S. Degree 

The degree of bachelor of science has not been offered in Amherst for 
a course of technical training, but for a course in which the culture of 
science and of other liberalizing studies was sought as a sound prepa- 
ration for technological and professional schools and for life. For 
eight years past, three years of preparatory Latin have been required 
from those entering this course. But the degree appears now open 
to the misapprehension that it is conferred upon completing a course 
of technical training. Since it is a course in the liberal arts and sciences, 
there is no reason why the degree of bachelor of arts should not be 
given on the completion of such a course, and therefore the degree of 
bachelor of science will not be offered to classes entering after 1913, % 
but only the one degree of bachelor of arts. As now arranged, the 
course leading to this degree is a better training for technical studies 
than the course that led to bachelor of science. Four years of Latin 
will be required of all for entrance. Two years of an ancient language 
and two years of science are in the future to be required in the college 
course, instead of one year each in classics and science, as in the past. 
Hitherto, half the college took two years of the classics and half two 
years in science, a part taking both. In future, all v/ill take both 
studies for two years. Amherst does not look on any man as educated 
until he has been taught to interpret the problems of his own day 
through the lessons of the past and has received a knowledge of classic 
literature, philosophy and civilization, gaining discipline in the expres- 
sion of his own tongue through the mental process of translation. 
Neither does Amherst look on any man today as fully trained for 
modern life who has not learned the methods of the laboratory and laid 
a secure foundation in science. 

"A Modified Classical Course" 

With the requirements of a preparation of four years of Latin and 
of two years of an ancient language in college, Amherst is definitely 
on the basis of a modified classical course. It is to be regretted that 
the requirement of Greek cannot be made, since so few preparatory 
schools teach it. But the college believes in Greek, believes in its 
value for discipline, for the culture and for the wide horizon opened 
to the student by knowledge of the vital past on which the literature, 
the institutions, the life of today are founded and without which they 



16 Amherst College 



cannot be fully understood. To encourage the study of Greek, the 
college proposes to have in residence each year, for part of a semester, 
a Greek scholar of the first rank, who will deliver a course of lectures 
and will, in addition, carry on a special work in teaching. The first 
incumbent under this plan will be Gilbert Murray, regius professor of 
Greek in Oxford University, v/ho will visit the college next spring. 
A number of honorary scholarships for students fitted in Greek will 
also be established by the college. 

Outside Activities 

The outside activities of the college have never trenched upon studies 
in Amherst to the extent that is charged elsewhere and intimated in 
your address. We look on these activities as of great cultural value, 
and we also believe that the development of the curriculum tends to 
the proper subordination of these interests. By limitation of the num- 
ber of activities, by insistence upon good scholarship as a requisite 
for participation, by giving opportunity and encouragement to every 
student to have some share in them, we are securing from year to year 
a wiser balance of work and play. We would not prevent the compe- 
tition of students with their fellows for prizes and honors justly dear 
to undergraduates. In this spirit, besides the required gymnastic 
exercise the college is developing team work by the general body of 
students on the athletic field. This year three-fifths, 300 out of 500, 
share this stimulus for the physical and social well being, and the policy 
will be continued until all not physically disqualified are engaged in 
some athletic competition. Dramatics, music, literary publications, 
intercollegiate debates and oratorical contests have a place and engage 
an interest of great value. 

The Amherst graduate, with these plans and policies in full force, 
will have offered four years of Latin or Greek, or both, at entrance; 
he will have had in college two years of an ancient language and two 
years at least of science; he will have a reading knowledge of German 
and Romance language; he will have pursued three subjects for three 
years and one subject for two years; he will have had the choice, besides 
the requirements of classics, sciences, mathematics and modern lan- 
guages, of philosophy, including metaphysics and psychology, history, 
economics, political science and literature; he will have had abundant 
opportunity to interest himself in college activities and athletics, and 
he will not have been permitted to overdo in either. Best of all, this 
will have been done in an institution whose president, trustees, faculty, 
alumni and undergraduates believe that the first office and duty of its 



Class of Eighty-Five 17 



training is to stimulate spiritual responisbility for the service of 
humanity. 

The Question of Numbers 

As to the limitation of numbers: It is, of course, necessary to limit 
numbers in accordance with our equipment and capacity for teaching 
in the most efficient manner. The teaching policy of the college is to 
have small groups of students. The last semester 76 courses were 
given. Of these, 64 courses were taught to groups of 30 or less, namely, 
18 courses to groups of 20 to 30; 5 courses to groups of IS to 20j 11 
courses to groups of 10 to 15; IS courses to groups of S to 10, and 15 
courses to groups of 5 or less. In only 12 courses were the groups 
larger, ranging from 31 to 54. The number 30 is arbitrarily chosen 
as the dividing line. There are few subjects that should be taught 
to as many as 30 men. The ideal of Amherst is small numbers in the 
class-room and thorough teaching. % 

We deem it desirable that the numbers remain in the neighborhood 
of 500, in order that the distinct atmosphere of a small college may be 
preserved, a number not too large for personal acquaintance of teachers 
with students and of students with one another, not too small for esprit 
du corps and enthusiasm. 

Competitive examinations on all subjects we do not regard as the 
best method of testing candidates for admission. In view of differences 
of preparation and opportunity, we take the best evidence obtainable 
whether candidates can do college work or not. 

Amherst is less solicitous about the size of its freshman class than 
about the character of the seniors it yearly graduates. It is as desirous 
to improve the work done by the lower third of a class as to lavish 
efFort on the upper tenth. Hence our system of prescribed subjects 
and of major and minor courses, our raising of grades for passing in 
each course and for graduation, which has been advanced to a minimum 
of 70, on a scale of 100, after having been for several years at 65; our 
policy of small divisions, of examination at the end of each semester, 
and of rigid scholarship requirements in case of participation in athletics 
and other outside activities. 

$800,000 for Increasing Salaries 

Such a course and such aims as have been outlined call for instructors 
free from anxiety over their daily expenditure. It is the policy of the 
board to increase salaries until they are at a reasonable level. This 
policy has been practically pursued for several years. The sum of 
3400,000 has been applied in the last 10 years to raising the salaries 



18 Amherst College 



of professors. An additional sum of 3400,000 has been secured for 
the college, through the gifts of its friends, which v/ill be used in order 
to advance the salaries of professors, an advance which the college 
begins in the coming year. The gifts of the past decade and this new 
addition to the endowment of the college, makes a total sum of 3800,000 
solely devoted to the purpose of increasing the salaries of professors 
and instructors. We mean to have the best teachers to put the em- 
phasis on teaching more than on research, and to make the emolument 
such that teachers will not be enticed away. We do not think, however, 
that the college has no other needs. The faculty is unanimous in the 
opinion that there should be an increase in library accommodations, 
that there should be another recreation hall, and more adequate admin- 
istrative officers. 

In reply, then, or in response, to the address of the class of 1885, 
we would say that the curriculum offers the studies of a liberal education, 
that courses in classics, mathematics, modern languages and science 
are required; that the choice of three-years, two-years and one-year 
courses is from history, literature, philosophy, political science and 
economics, as well as from classics and science; that the one degree of 
bachelor of arts only will be given; that the compensation of teachers 
has been increased and will be still further advanced; that the number 
of students will not be arbitrarily fixed, but will be determined by 
the provision for efficient teaching; that candidates will be selected 
according to evidences of their fitness to do good work, and that a 
high standard of scholarship is maintained. 



Class of Eighty-Five 19 



THE GARMAN MEMORIAL PORTRAIT 

At a dinner given by Prentice, Thayer and Whitman 
to members of the class at the Univesrity Club in 
New York, December 31, 1908, the suggestion was 
made that it would be a most appropriate thing for 
the class to mark its 2Sth reunion the presentation to 
the college of a memorial of some kind. After much 
discussion, it was decided that the memorial should 
take the form of a portrait of Professor Garman. A 
committee, consisting of Evans, Hutcheson and Warner, 
was appointed by President Thayer, with full power to 
raise the necessary funds, have the portrait painted, 
and arrange for its presentation to the college at the 
reunion. A most persistent canvass of the whole class 
limited the amount which could be raised for the memo- 
rial to 31000, and yet, through his magnificent gener- 
osity, the committee was able to have the portrait 
painted by one of America's foremost artists, John W. 
Alexander, whose work brings readily from four to five 
times the amount which could be raised by the class. 
In his work, the artist had the invaluable help, sug- 
gestion and criticism of Mrs. Garman, with the result 
that the portrait, in the judgment of those who knew 
him best, embodies much of the real spirit of Professor 
Garman. To use Mrs. Garman's own words: "The 
portrait is just splendid. I am perfectly satisfied with 
it. The position, the poise, the expression, all are most 
lifelike." 

The portrait is three-quarters length and is hung in 
the college chapel. To the credit of the class of '85, 
it may be said that the Garman portrait is about the 



20 Amherst College 



most valuable work of art now owned by Amherst 
College. 

Inasmuch as the memorial was the gift of a class, 
and not of an individual, it was though best that it 
should be presented at the alumni dinner, rather than 
at the close of the commencement exercises. The 
presentation address made by Evans on behalf of the 
class was as follows: 



Address by Evans 

Mr. Toastmaster and Fellow Aluvmi: 

It is always a great thing in a teacher to be able to influence in 
the right direction, a few, even of the best minds in each class 
which comes under his instruction; to me, it seems even a greater 
thing in such a teacher to be able to interest and influence some 
of the indifferent; but, as a teacher, to leave one's indelible stamp, 
one's "hall-mark," as it were, upon the lives and characters of the 
majority of students of every class for upwards of a quarter of 
a century — that's genius, and a rare, rare, genius, indeed. 

In commemoration of the life and work of such a man, the Class 
of 1885, upon this its quarter century anniversary, deems it a 
rare privilege to present to you, Mr. President, and to the trustees 
of Amherst College, this portrait of Professor Charles E. Garman. 

And it is given, Mr. President, not alone as a memorial, but as 
a token of the great love we bore him. For I know I voice the 
sentiment of all the alumni who knew him as a teacher, when 
I say that from that first day in the early eighties when he came 
to Amherst College, an instructor, down to the day of his untimely 
end, he loved his students, even as he loved his own life. 

Professor Carman's coming to Amherst was almost coincident 
with the great wave of material development which swept over 
this country from end to end. Following in its wake, came a 
popular attack upon our colleges and universities — that education 
was not practical, that college graduates were unfit, and unfitted 
to compete in this keen material struggle, — in short, vulgarly put, 
the demand was for more "money-makers." It is but recalling 
educational history to say, that so insistent was this criticism, 
that for a time it threatened to sweep away from their traditions 
many of our time-honored institutions of learning, — and, in fact, 
did in a greater or less degree affect them all. Into this seething 



Class of Eighty-Five 21 



material wave, conscience, public and private, was swept, until it 
almost transpired, almost transpired, I say, that mere accumu- 
lation came to be mistaken for lasting progress and development. 

With the sublime faith of a mariner, Professor Garman clung 
to the old-fashioned notion that if he could but put into the hands 
of the young man a compass, with which upon all seas and in all 
sorts of weather he might find himself, then all things which are 
necessary and of good repute, would in due course be added 
unto him. 

And need I ask you whether this man was wise before his day 
and generation? Why, before the close of his short life, from all 
over this broad land, the cry went up from the "money-makers," 
to be saved from themselves, and the call was and is for men, who 
can rescue the nation and the people from the maze of selfishness. 
He lived long enough to see at least the dawn of the day, when in 
some measure, let us hope, private accumulation shall be synon% 
mous with public trust. 

My good friends, I am neither a preacher nor a teacher, but 
since I left Amherst, I have gone twenty-five stages along that 
same highway over which we all must go; and while I have read 
some of the signs along that highway, and am free to confess 
that I have probably missed a great many more, — still this one 
thing I do know, and this one I do want to say to you, young man, 
who today have gone out from this place of learning, that if in 
your sojourn here you have been put at least within reach of that 
power which hereafter shall enable you to distinguish between 
the essentials in life, and those things which are merely incidental, 
then Amherst College has given to you a priceless legacy. 

And to this end, and to this purpose, the exceptional life and 
the exceptional talents of this man, were dedicated. But such a 
life and such a character ought never to be spoken of as past. For 
it is so, because it must be so. Oh! I say it must be so, my good 
friends, that long, long, after what we know as Amherst College 
shall have crumbled and passed away; long, long, after these pic- 
tured features shall have faded and grown dim, — that which he 
really was, the soul of him, which he breathed into the lives and 
characters of others, it shall exist forever — for it is immortal. 



22 



Amherst College 













Twenty-Five Years Out of the Fhncoof' 



Class of Eighty-Five 23 



The Men of Eighty-Five 

^^Twenty-Five Years Out oj the Hencoop'^ 



HERBERT VAUGHAN ABBOTT, son of Rev. Lyma^ 
and Abby Frances (Hamlin) Abbott, was born at Terre 
Haute, Indiana, January 3, 1865, and prepared for 
college at Cornwall Heights School, Cornwall-on-the- 
Hudson, N. Y. During his college course he was a 
member of Chi Psi, senator. Student editor, and at 
graduation, ivy orator. 

From 1886-87 a teacher at Cornwall-on-the-Hudson; 
1887-88, at the Beloit High School, Wisconsin; '90-'91, 
literary editor of the New York Commercial Advertiser; 
'94-'98, assistant and instructor in the English depart- 
ment at Harvard; '98-'05, connected with the Horace 
Mann School and the Teachers' College, New York; 
since 1905, associate professor of English at Smith 
College, Northampton, Mass. He was united in mar- 
riage, at Northampton, June 15, 1911, with Miss Senda 
Berenson, director of physical culture in Smith College. 

Address: 88 High St., Northampton, Mass. 



HERBERT BROWN AMES, the son of E. F. Ames, 
was born in Montreal, Canada, June 27, 1863, and 
fitted for college at Williston Seminary, Easthampton, 
Mass. In college he was a member of Alpha Delta 



24 Amherst College 



Phi and Phi Beta Kappa, a member of the Olio board 
and one of the eight debaters for the Hardy prize. 

From August 1, 1885, to December, 1893, he was in 
business with his father. Since his father's death, on 
June 13, 1895, he has devoted his time chiefly to public 
affairs, municipal reform and philanthropic work. He 
is a director in several stock companies, an elder in the 
American Presbyterian Church, a director of the Young 
Men's Christian Association, and several similar insti- 
tutions. 

He has served as president of the Volunteer Electrical 
League of Montreal, and secretary of the Good Govern- 
ment Association. Many reforms in Montreal's city 
government have been due to the activities of the 
organizations which he has done much to promote. 
He occupies a seat on the Council of Public Instruction 
of the Province of Quebec. In Paris in 1895 he studied 
municipal hygiene. In 1898 he was elected to the 
City Council, and was re-elected three times, finally 
declining to stand for re-election. 

In 1904, together with the president of the Board 
of Trade and the president of the Canadian Manu- 
facturers' Association, he visited England and spoke in 
London and several large cities on improving the trade 
relations between Canada and Great Britain. In 
November, 1904, elected a member of the House of 
Commons, Dominion of Canada, representing St. 
Antoine division, the western portion of the city of 
Montreal. He is a conservative. In 1908 he was 
re-elected by a majority of 840. 

In 1909 Ames was named a delegate to represent the 
Montreal Board of Trade at the congress of the Cham- 
bers of Commerce of the Empire which was held in 
Sydney, Australia, September, 1909, after which he 
returned via Ceylon, making a trip around the world. 
On his return journey he was desperately ill, suffering 



Class of Eigkty-Five 25 



first from typhoid fever contracted in India and frora 
sciatica, and later inflammation of the spine while in 
Egypt. Mrs. Ames was cabled for and joined him in 
Egypt, where he improved sufficiently to warrant the 
attempt to reach home. In April, 1910, he reached 
New York on the Adriatic, having been carried 7,000 
miles on a stretcher. 

Ames has written "The City Below the Hill," a socio- 
logical study (1897), a course of lectures on Canadian 
political history, an article on "Incomes, Wages and 
Rents in Montreal" in the Bulletin of the Department 
of Labor, Washington, 1898, and several magazine 
articles. His unique and incisive methods in parlia- 
mentary work have been most favorably commentect 
upon by the press. His health is now sufficiently 
restored to permit of his resuming parliamentary work, 
and he is giving his attention mainly to the trade 
questions in the House. 

Married May 19, 1890, Miss Louise Marion Kennedy, 
daughter of John Kennedy, C. E. No children. 

Address: 26 Ontario Ave., Montreal, P. Q. 



GEORGE DONALDSON ANTHONY, the son of 

Judge Elliott and Elizabeth (Dwight) Anthony, was 
born at Chicago, February 18, 1863, and prepared for 
college in the public and high schools of Chicago. He 
was amember of Chi Phi while in college and took part 
in senior dramatics. After graduation he took the law 
course in Northwestern University, where he obtained 
the degree of LL.B. Since that time he has been a 
member of the law firm of C. E. & G. D. Anthony. 
He has been state senator fron the 23d Illinois sena- 
torial district. He was married June 27, 1895, to Miss 
Emma Etta Niblock, daughter of Mrs. James G. Nib- 
lock of Pasadena, Cal. 



26 Amherst College 



In 1898 Mrs. Anthony and an infant daughter died. 
Four years later he remarried, and continued the prac- 
tice of law in Chicago. Recently he has become dean 
of the American Correspondence School of Law, one 
of the largest law schools in text-book instruction in 
the world. 

Address: 1325 Michigan Ave., Chicago, 111. 

CLARENCE MASON AUSTIN was born in Skane- 
ateles, N. Y., November 17, 1861, the son of Franklin 
E. Austin, and fitted for college in the Skaneateles 
Academy. He was a member of Delta Upsilon. He 
won the Kellogg prize in his freshman year at college, 
and was one of the six speakers for the Hyde prize 
senior year. 

From 1885 until October, 1889, he was engaged in 
the wholesale coal business in Chicago; since then in 
Seattle, Wash., in the mortgage loan business. 

Address: Seattle, Wash. 

DWIGHT BALDWIN, son of Judge Henry Baldwin 
of Boston, was born in Brighton, Mass., May 1, 1863, 
and fitted for college at the Boston Latin School. He 
was a member at college of the Torch and Crown Society, 
and left Amherst at the close of freshman year to join 
the sophomore class at Yale. 

He married June 4, 1891, Miss Grace Emery Camp- 
bell, daughter of Charles Campbell of Cherryfield, Me., 
and a graduate of Bradford Academy, and they have 
one child, Dudley Baldwin, born July 22, 1892. He 
conducts an extensive real estate and building business 
at Allston (Boston). 

Address: 399 Cambridge St., Allston, Mass. 

RICHARD BALDWIN is agent for the New York 
Life Insurance Company in Bristol, Conn. He has 



Clasj of Eighty-Five 27 



held several town offices and represented the town of 
Plymouth in the Connecticut Legislature in 1897-98. 

He was married to Clara B, Crampton, October 1, 
1885. Mrs. Baldwin died May 26, 1901. 

Children: S. Taylor, born June 19, 1886; L. Terry, 
born December 6, 1889; Paul C, born April 19, 1892; 
Clara E., born May 9, 1897. 

Address: 78 Maple St., Bristol, Conn. 

FRED DRUMMOND BARKER, the son of Henry A. 
Barker, was born in West Newton, Mass., September 
25, 1861. He attended Amherst 1881-3, five terms, 
where he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon, and% 
pursued a special course at Harvard 1883-4; Harvard 
Law School 1884-6; in business in London, England 
1888-90. 

Lawyer, 15 Britannica St., London, England. 

(No replies ever come from Barker, but a registered 
letter to above address reached him.) 

FRANKLIN WILLIAM BARROWS, M. D., son of 
Rev. Simon and Emily L. (Barrows) Barrows, was born 
at Springfield, 111., January 24, 1863, and fitted for col- 
lege at Doane College, Crete, Nebraska. He then 
studied at Tabor College, Tabor, Iowa, and entered 
Amherst at the beginning of senior year, becoming a 
member of Psi Upsilon fraternity. He was also a mem- 
ber of the glee club. 

Since graduation he has studied four years in the 
medical department of the University of Buffalo, N. Y.; 
half a year at Clark University, Worcester, and two 
terms at Woods Hole. He received the degree of M. A. 
from Amherst, and AL D. from Buffalo. 

From 1885-1888 he was teacher of science in Worcester 
Academy, Worcester, Mass.; from 1888 to 1893 teacher 



28 Amherst College 



of natural science in the Buffalo High School; from 
1895 to 1902 instructor in histology in the medical 
department, University of Buffalo. In 1893 he resigned 
his teaching position and gave his whole attention to 
the practice of medicine in Buffalo. For five years he 
has edited the nursing department of The Dietetic and 
Hygienic Gazette, New York. Since 1908 he has been 
one of the medical inspectors of schools. 

June 28, 1894, he married Isabella S. Deane of Buffalo, 
They have two children, Marion, born September 23, 
1897, and Emily, born May 31, 1904. 

Address: 1364 Michigan St., Buffalo, N. Y. 



JAMES BURT BEST, son of James and Mary (Chubb) 
Best, was born at Chatham, N. Y., March 31, 1864, 
and prepared for college at Kinderhook, N. Y. In 
college he was a member of Alpha Delta Phi, a Kellogg 
speaker freshman year, editor-in-chief of the Student, 
class orator, Hyde orator, and took part in senior 
dramatics. He was graduated from the Columbia Law 
School with the degree of LL. B. 

From 1887 to 1895 he resided in Tacoma, Washing- 
ton, practicing law and also serving two years as city 
judge. He then spent several years in New York as 
manager and chief proprietor of a new magazine, The 
Progress of the World. He then removed to Everett, 
Washington, and engaged in newspaper work, soon 
becoming manager of the Everett Daily Herald, a pro- 
gressive and influential paper. He purchased the paper 
in September, 1905, and continues to manage it. 

He married, October 31, 1890, Gertrude Delprat of 
Tacoma. 

Children: Robert Delprat, born July 13, 1909. 

Address: Everett, Washington. 



Class of Eighty-Five 29 



EDWARD BRECK is the son of Lt. Com. Joseph 
Berry Breck of the U. S. Navy, and was born in San 
Francisco, Cal., July 31, 1861. He studied under private 
tutors, then at the Newton (Mass.) High School and 
Oberlin College, entering Amherst in the fall of 1882. 
During his one year with '85 he was a member of Psi 
Upsilon and of the glee club, and an editor of the 
Student. He was shortstop on the class nine and sub- 
stitute on the 'varsity eleven. 

Leaving Amherst he studied at Cambridge, Leipsic 
and Berlin, taking the degrees of M. A. and Ph.D. 
at Leipsic. 

He was grand opera tenor in Germany for three 
years; chief editor oi Life, London, Eng., for two years,"* 
literary adviser and editorial writer, Boston; foreign 
correspondent New York Times, and then of the New 
York Herald, Berlin; American vice-consul-general, 
assistant to U. S. naval attache, Berlin, during Spanish 
war, during most of which time he operated in Spain; 
sub-editor new edition Encyclopaedia Britannica in 
London, England, two years; woodsman and guide in 
Nova Scotia for the past four years, and now president 
of the Nova Scotia Guides' Association. He was for 
two years golf champion of Germany. 

He has written many articles and books, among the 
latter being Aelfric's De Consuetudine Monachorum; 
Art of Fencing; The Way of the Woods; Wilderness 
Pets; Sporting Guide to Nova Scotia. The following 
is from the Brooklyn Citizen, reviewing one of his books: 

"The author has been successively a university student in three 
countries, a doctor of philosophy of Leipsic University, first tenor 
in grand opera, several times champion fencer of Germany and 
Austria and of New England, literary adviser of a great Ameican 
publishing house, foreign correspondent, VIce-Consul General in 
Berlin, assistant to the U. S. Naval Attache in Germany during 
the Spanish war, the Navy's most daring secret agent in Spain 



30 Amherst College 



during that war, the author of several hundred articles in the 
coming new edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, an expert 
angler and big game hunter on both sides of the water, and finally 
a licensed and registered guide in the northern wilderness." 

Married, August 31, 1891, Antonie de Wagner- 
Beaumont of Austria. He has three daughters, 
Address: Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia. 



ALBERT WADSWORTH BROOKS, son of Samuel S. 
Brooks, was born in Augusta, Maine, July 28, 1863, 
and fitted for college in the Augusta High School. In 
college he was a member of Psi Upsilon and of the glee 
club. 

He left Amherst in the spring of junior year to enter 
mercantile life in Augusta, and is now a member of the 
firm of B. F. Parrott Co., dealers in flour, grain and 
sugar. He has been interested in public affairs, and 
has been president of the Board of Aldermen and an 
overseer of the poor. He has devoted much attention 
to public education, having been connected with the 
city schools in some capacity for seventeen years, and 
having been chairman of the Board of Education for 
several years. 

He married, November 21, 1893, Miss Mary E. 
Macdaniel, daughter of Gardner F. Macdaniel of 
Augusta, who died June 12, 1903. He has one daughter, 
Barbara, born June 7, 1900. On June 16, 1908, he 
married Alice Hope Davies, of Waterville, Maine, who 
died June 12, 1909. 

Address: Care B. F. Parrott Co., Augusta, Maine. 

BENJAMIN BROOKS, son of Simon and Louisa 
(Pomeroy) Brooks, was born in Brooklyn, N. Y., October 
27, 1862. Prepared for college at Holyoke (Mass.) 
High School. 



Class of Eighty-Five 3 1 



After leaving the "hen-coop" he sold Grant's Personal 
Memoirs for two months, and then studied law in the 
office of W. H. Brooks of Holyoke, until September, 
1886. From that time until January 1, 1887, he assisted 
in operating the power plant of the electric light works 
in Westfield, Mass. Studied law in office of Judge 
Maynard of Springfield until September, 1887, when 
he became steward of the House of Correction in Spring- 
field. In September, 1888, he took charge of that 
institution under the sheriff, holding the position until 
January, 1893. Then he sold life insurance for six 
months. 

In July, 1893, he rode his bicycle, with a Springfield 
friend, to the Chicago Exposition. The two arrived in • 
Southern California in August, 1893, "dead broke." 
They hired a camera and took outside views throughout 
the orange belt until the following December, when a 
freeze of the wheat and orange crops staggered the 
natives and drove the artists to day labor on a ranch 
at "31 per, unfound." In June, 1894, the glamor of 
the situation had vanished and as the exchequer showed 
a few piasters the two wanderers returned East. Brooks 
immediately entered the law office of Brooks, Hamilton 
& Guyott of Holyoke, and made a specialty of the 
investigation of accident cases and their preparation 
for trial. He remained with this firm until September, 
1903, when he took the position of manager of the 
Boston claim division of the Maryland Casualty Com- 
pany. 

April 2, 1907, Benjamin took unto himself a wife, 
Isabel A., daughter of John and Isabella Hagerty, of 
Providence, R. I. On March 15, 1910, he was trans- 
ferred to the managership of the St. Louis (Mo.) claim 
division, and on November 8, 1910, to the managership 
of the New York claim division. 

Address: 100 William St., New York City. 



32 Amherst College 



OILMAN LEACH BROWN, the son of Richard and 
Sophia (Martin) Brown, was born in Brooklyn, N. Y., 
June 10, 1862. 

He fitted for college at the Classical School, Brooklyn, 
and attended Amherst as a member of '85 four terms, 
in 1881-2. He received the degree of LL. B. from 
New York University in 1885. 

When last heard from he lived at 853 Halsey St., 
Brooklyn, N. Y., and was in the produce commission 
business. He is married. Letters to the above address 
have lately been returned. 

WILLIAM MARK BROWN, the son of Edward and 
Jane E. Brown, was born in Springfield, Mass., March 
13, 1863. He fitted at Collinsville High School, Con- 
necticut, remaining with us six terms in 1881-1883. 

He left Amherst during junior year to enter an in- 
surance office in Utica, N. Y. The following year he 
removed to Florida, where he has been actively engaged 
in business, and is now president of the Miami Ice and 
Cold Storage Company. 

Brown was married to Anna Stevenson Jones, daugh- 
ter of Capt. Henry R. Jones, U. S. A., of New Hartford, 
Conn., September 14, 1887. Children: Louise Wads- 
worth, born September 14, 1887, and now a senior in 
Wellesly College; and William Mark, Jr., born Sep- 
tember 20, 1892, and now a freshman in the University 
of Virginia. 

Address: Miami, Florida. 

REV. HANFORD MONTROSE BURR, son of Rev. 
E. F. Burr, D. D., author of "Ecce Coelum," was born 
in Lyme, Conn., April 9, 1864, and prepared for college 
at home under his father's tuition. In Amherst he 
was a member of Chi Psi, and of Phi Beta Kappa, and 



Class of Eighty-Five 33 



was the winner of a prize in the Biblical literature 
course. 

He studied theology at the Hartford Seminary, and 
was connected with the First Congregational Church 
of Lowell, Mass., from 1888 to 1890. The two years 
following he was pastor of the Park Congregational 
Church, Springfield, Mass., and since 1892 he has been 
instructor in sociology in the International Y. M. C. A. 
Training School, Springfield. 

He married, June 21, 1888, Miss Helen C. Saxton, 
daughter of W. H. Saxton of Saugatuck, Conn. There 
are two children, Harold S. Burr, born April 9, 1889, 
and Eleanor, born June 14, 1891. Mrs. Burr died in 
1901, and in June, 1903, Burr married Miss Grace 
Fairbank (two of whose brothers have graduated from 
Amherst, one in '83, and the other in '86). 

Continuing his work as professor of history and 
economics in the Training School, which he finds very 
pleasant, Burr has Avritten "Studies in Adolescent Boy- 
hood" and "Donald McRae," the latter a novel just 
getting into print. His son is at Yale and his daughter 
at Mt. Holyoke. 

Address: 250 Alden St., Springfield, Mass. 

JOHN EDWARD BUTLER, M. D., son of Edward 
Payson and Martha Glen Butler, was born June 29, 
1863, at Philadelphia, Penn., and prepared for college 
at the Boston Latin School. He was a member at 
college of Chi Phi and of Phi Beta Kappa, and of the 
Olio board. 

From 1885 to 1887 he was principal of the high school 
of Lincoln, Mass. Then he took a medical course at 
Harvard University and the Rotunda Lying-In-Hos- 
pital, Dublin, Ireland, at which latter place he received 
the degree of L. M. Since December, 1891, he has 
been engaged in the practice of his profession. 



34 Amherst College 



He spent the year 1905 In professional study at Paris, 
Heidelberg, Munich, Vienna, and chiefly in London. 
He is a fellow of the Massachusetts Medical Society, 
member of Roxbury Society for Medical Improvement, 
member of the Harvard Medical Alumni Association, 
and a member of the visiting staff of Boston City 
Hospital. He is unmarried. 

Address: 64 Monadnock St., Dorchester, Boston, 
Mass. 

SIR CHENTUNG LIANG CHENG, the recent 
Chinese minister to this country, studied in Amherst 
under tutors, and later attended Phillips, Andover, 
with the class of '81, intending to enter our class on 
comipleting his preparatory course there. He was, how- 
ever, recalled by his government. Given the degree 
of LL. D. by Amherst in 1903, making Amherst his 
summer home, known to many of our class, he signified 
his willingness to become an honorary member of '85, 
and at the dinner in 1905 he was unanimously elected. 
He and his daughter. Miss May Liang, attended a 
reception at headquarters. 

Sir Liang supplied our records with the following 
interesting data: Chentung Liang Cheng, E. E, M. P., 
K. C. M. G., LL. D., was born November, 1863, at 
Canton, China. Attended school at Amherst, 1875-78; 
at Phillips Academy, Andover, 1878-81, as Chinese 
government student. Attache Chinese legation, Wash- 
ington, 1886-89; third secretary special mission to 
Japan, 1895; first secretary, special mission to the 
Queen's jubilee, 1897; first secretary, special mission 
to Berlin, 1901; first secretary special mission to King 
Edward's coronation, 1902; appointed H. I. C. Majesty's 
envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to 
the United States, Spain and Peru, 1902; made a min- 
ister of the Court in October, also Chinese minister 



Class of Eighty-Five 35 



to Cuba; received honorary degree of LL. D. from 
Amherst College, 1903; made Chinese minister to 
Mexico in 1904, retaining the post in Washington. 

Is a member of the following orders conferred by 
foreign Sovereigns: Knight Commander of the most 
distinguished order of St. Michael and St. George 
(English); commander of the Legion of Honor (French); 
second order of the Rising Sun (Japanese); second order 
of St. Anne (Russian); commander of the order of 
Royal Leopold (Belgian); made an honorary member 
of the class of '85, 1905. 

Member of an old commercial family of Canton, 
when trade was carried on between Salem, Boston and 
Canton before the treaty ports were opened, as well 
as the family that has held the most literary honors 
for Canton province for the last eighty years. Played 
in the Phillips Andover base ball nine as right fielder 
and pitcher. 

Since retiring from the post in Washington in 1907 
he has been government commissioner in charge of the 
Hankow Railroad, and in July, 1910, was appointed 
minister to Berlin. 

Has two sons at Amherst this year (1910). 

Address: Chinese Legation, Berlin, Germany. 

GEORGE HENRY COBB, M. D., the son of Rev. 
Henry and H. J. (Herrick) Cobb, was born at North 
Andover, Mass., January 20, 1863, and prepared for 
college at the high school in Minneapolis, Minn., and 
Carleton College, Northfield, Minn. While in Am- 
herst, which he entered at the beginning of sophomore 
year, he was a member of Chi Phi. After graduation 
he spent three years pursuing the medical course in 
the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York; 
nineteen months as interne in the New York Hospital, 
and eighteen months in the University of Vienna, Austria. 



36 Amherst College 



From that time until 1898 he was a practicing physician 
in New York City. In 1898 he removed from New York 
to South Orange, N. J., where he now resides, engaged 
very successfully in the general practice of his profes- 
sion. His degrees are B.A., M.A., and M. D. 

In 1907 he and Thayer were fellow passsengers in 
crossing the Atalntic. He says his best product is his 
two sons, both of whom are now (1910) undergraduates 
at Amherst. 

Cobb was married on June 28, 1890, to Laura Dayton, 
daughter of Daniel Joy and Laura Dayton Sprague, 
and has two children, Samuel Henry, born January 15, 
1891; Edward Sprague, born March 17, 1892. 

Address: 117 Irvington Ave., South Orange, N. J. 



GEORGE HENRY CONDY, the son of John and 
Hannah (Magowan) Condy, was born in Lowell, Mass., 
September 20, 1861, and fitted for college at the Wor- 
cester High School. He attended Amherst College one 
term in 1881, and has since been in North Dakota. 
Letters are not returned when addressed to Coopers- 
town, North Dakota, but the class has been unable 
to secure any communication from him. 



ELMER JAPHETH CORTTIS was born in Thomp- 
son, Conn., January 3, 1864, the son of Japheth Corttis, 
and fitted for college at Nicholas Academy, Dudley, 
Mass. Since his graduation from Amherst he has been 
engaged in farming. 

Married, June 26, 1907, to Edith Mabel Perrin of 
North Woodstock, Conn. A daughter, Virginia Perrin 
Corttis, was born May 20, 1908. A son, born June 15, 
1910, died July 3, 1910. 

Address: Quinnebaug, Conn. 



Class of Eighty-Five 37 



SANFORD LYMAN CUTLER, son of Rev. Calvin 
and Sarah (Sanford) Cutler, was born at New Ipswich, 
N. H., June 27, 1863. 

He fitted for college at Newton (Mass.) High School. 
In college he was a member of Alpha Delta Phi and Phi 
Beta Kappa. He won the Porter admission prize and 
the German prize. He was one of the four monitors, 
and a speaker at commencement. 

Since graduation he has been teacher or principal 
in secondary schools in Groton, Hatfield, and Great 
Barrington, Mass., and Huntington, N. Y. For the 
past twelve years he has been a teacher of Latin in the 
Morris High School of New York City. 

He married, August 8, 1888, Emma Sarah Thayer * 
of West Medway, Mass. Children: Clara Sanford, 
born July 23, 1889; graduated from Mt. Holyoke Col- 
lege in 1910. Helen Eaton, born July 13, 1892, a stu- 
dent at Mt. Holyoke College. David Sanford, born 
March 28, 1894. Addison Thayer, born November 21, 
1903. 

Address: 103 West Tremont Ave., New York City. 



CURTIS DEAN, the son of Henry S. and Charlotte 
C. Deane, was born in Coventry, Conn., October 7, 
1856, and prepared for college at Worcester Academy, 
Worcester, Mass. In college he was a member of 
Theta Delta Chi. At the close of his course he studied 
law at the Columbia Law School, from which he gradu- 
ated in class of 1889. He practiced his profession at 
Coventry until 1891, when he removed to Willimantic, 
Conn., in which two places he is now practicing. He 
was a candidate for representative for the town of 
Coventry in 1890, and since then has been clerk of the 
board of selectmen of the township of Windham, deputy 
judge of police court of the city of Willimantic, justice 



38 Amherst Collese 



of the peace, secretary of the high school committee, 
and member of the town school committee. He is 
unmarried. 

Address: Willimantic, Conn. 

FREDERICK SUMNER DEANE enrolled as a member 
of our class, was with us only a few weeks. He was 
known to none of us, and according to the trophy com- 
mittee, which has investigated, he is dead. 

FRED HOLLAND DEWEY, son of Harlow Dewey 
was born in Westfield, Mass, June 28, 1861. 

He has been engaged in teaching in Freehold, N. J.; 
Billerica, Mass., and Waterbury, Conn. He was for 
several years principal of the Conwell Academy at 
South Worthington, and until recently was connected 
with the Smith Agricultural School at Northampton, 
Mass. He was engaged over seven years on Webster's 
New International Dictionary, and is now one of the 
editors of the Standard Dictionary. His versatility is 
shown by his long experience in private as well as varied 
public teaching. As hobbies he dabbled in the raising 
of pet stock and imported and raised Italian bees, at 
one time being considered one of the authorities upon 
the subject of beekeeping. He has written and pub- 
lished several poems and one or two popular songs. 
December 15, 1901, he married Mrs. Nellie V. Cale. 
There are no children. 

Address: 250 West 22d St., New York City. 

THOMPSON COIT ELLIOTT, private banker, local 
historian and critic, leader in literary and philanthropic 
enterprises, is widely known in the state of Washington 
and in Oregon. Elliott was one of the chief promoters 



Class of Eighty-Five 39 



of the Walla Walla Public Library, being the secretary 
and treasurer of its board of trustees, and has served 
as president of the State Library Association. He is 
an authority upon historical matters relating to the 
Oregon Country, and a contributor to the historical 
magazines. 

Elliott was born In Connecticut September 10, 1862, 
the son of Rev. John E. Elliott (Amherst, 1857), and 
prepared for college at the Hartford High School. In 
college he was a member of Torch and Crown and Beta 
Theta Pi, of the glee club, of the class base ball nine 
and in senior year chairman of the class photograph 
committee. In December, 1885, he entered the em- 
ploy of the Central Loan and Land Company at Emporia, 
Kansas, but left there in, June 1886, to become cashier 
and land examiner for the Washington Loan and Trust 
Company of Walla Walla, Washington, which position 
he held until 1897, and then retired to go Into business 
for himself. He served as treasurer for Whitman 
College, Walla Walla, from 1895 to 1900, and has served 
for years as director in the Baker-Boyer National Bank, 
of Walla Walla. 

He married September 18, 1890, Miss Anna Amelia 
Baker, daughter of the late Dorsey S. Baker of Walla 
Walla, a prominent pioneer of that region. His chil- 
dren, all living, are: Mary Elizabeth, born June, 1891; 
Romie Josephine, born December, 1892; Dorothy Amelia, 
born January, 1894; Dorsey John, born May, 1896; 
Thompson Baker, born October, 1898; Anna Louise, 
born March, 1900; Barbara Colt, born September, 1902. 

Address: Walla Walla, Washington. 



ROBERT ERSKINE ELY, son of Richard Ely, was 
born at BInghamton, N. Y., September 13, 1861, and 
was prepared for college at the BInghamton High School. 



40 Amherst College 

In Amherst he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon 
and Phi Beta Kappa, and was the winner of the second 
German prize in the junior year. 

After his graduation from Union Theological Semi- 
nary in 1888, he became the minister of Hope Con- 
gregational Church in Cambridge, Mass., and con- 
tinued his work with this church till 1892. In 1891 he 
became the president of the Prospect Union in Cam- 
bridge, an organization which Mr. Ely founded and 
which became Harvard's unofficial university extension 
work. Since 1900 he has been in New York as the 
director of the League for Political Education. He is 
also director of the Civic Forum, secretary of the 
Economic Club of New York, trustee of the Academy 
of political Science, which is affiliated with the Columbia 
University, and trustee of the American College for 
Girls in Constantinople. He was secretary of the 
National Arbitration and Peace Conference in 1907, 
and a member of the Hudson-Fulton celebration com- 
mission in 1909. He is a member of the board of 
directors and executive committee of the New York 
Peace Society, a member of the executive committee 
of the Society of the Friends of Russian Freedom. 

He married Rudolphine Scheffer of Amsterdam, 
Holland, June 12, 1905. They have two children by 
adoption: Robert Scheifer Ely, and Inia Roseboom 
Ely. 

Address: 23 West 44th St., New York. 

WILLIAM DAVID EVANS was born at Pittsburgh, 
Pa., October 7, 1862, the son of David F. Evans, and 
prepared for college at the Pittsburgh Central High 
School and the Western University of Pennsylvania. 
In Amherst he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon 
and Phi Beta Kappa, was one of the five speakers for 
the Kellogg prize sophomore year, an editor of the 



Class of Eighty-Five 41 



Student senior year, one of the Hardy prize debaters, 
and one of the six speakers for the Hyde prize. 

After his graduation from Amherst he studied la-w- 
in Pittsburgh and has since been practicing there. 
The firm of Wilson & Evans, of which he is a member, 
is engaged almost exclusively in corporation work, 
representing the Jones & Laughlin Steel Co., Pittsburgh 
Trust Co., and several railroads. He is chairman of 
the executive committee of the Associated Charities of 
Pittsburgh and a member of the Duquesne, Univer- 
sity, and Law clubs of Pittsburgh. He is unmarried. 

Address: Commonwealth Building, Pittsburgh, Pa. 



CHARLES HILL FESSENDEN, the son of C. P. and 

A. A. (Wiggin) Fessenden, was born in Bridgeton, 
Maine, May 1, 1863, and fitted for college at the Clas- 
sical Academy, Hallowell, Maine. He attended Am- 
herst College five terms in 1881-83, where he was a 
member of Delta Upsilon. He then attended the 
Boston University Medical School, where he was 
graduated June 2, 1886. 

He has practiced his profession in Manchester, N. H., 
1886-91, and in Newton Center, Mass., since 1891. 
Medical staff of Newton Hospital, 1896-05, and electro- 
therapeutist of that hospital since 1903. Practice 
limited to radiography and high frequency electro- 
therapeutics since 1904. Secretary New England Es- 
peranto Association. Member committee on examina- 
tions and statistics, Esperanto Association of North 
America, associate editor Amerika Esperantisto. 

Married, June 17, 1886, Cora F. Richardson of Hal- 
lowell, Maine, and has a son, Howard P., born February 
21, 1891, a member of the class of 1913 at the Massa- 
chusetts Institute of Technology. 

Address: 34 Pelham St., Newton Center, Mass. 



42 Amherst College 



PLINY FISKE prepared for college in the high school 
at Greenfield, Mass. He was born in Shelburne, 
Mass., October 26, 1862, the son of Pliny Fiske. Shortly 
after his graduation from Amherst he entered the em- 
ploy of Heywood Brothers & Co., chair manufacturers, 
at their Boston office, and has been connected with 
this concern, or its successors, Heywood Brothers & 
Wakefield Company, up to the present time. After 
living in Boston a few years he removed to Arlington, 
Mass., where he has since resided. He is unmarried. 

Address: 800 Massachusetts Ave., Arlington, and 
174 Portland St., Boston. 

TOD BUCHANAN GALLOWAY, son of Samuel and 
Joan (Wallen) Galloway, was born at Columbus, Ohio, 
October 13, 1863, and fitted for college at the Columbus 
High School. He was a member of Chi Psi while in 
college, chairman of the senior dramatics committee 
and an actor in the dramatics, and chairman of the 
senior promenade committee. 

Since graduation he has resided in Columbus, first 
studying law there, and since practicing. He has been 
special agent of the Eleventh United States Census, 
member of city council of Columbus two years, trustee 
and secretary of the Children's Hospital, chairman of 
the Franklin County Republican Committee two years, 
trustee of the Hare's Orphan Home, vice-president of 
the Ohio Society S. A. R., secretary for Ohio of the 
Scotch-Irish Society of America. Was elected probate 
judge of Franklin County, Ohio, 1896, and served two 
terms, until February, 1903. Was appointed secretary 
to the governor of Ohio and served until January, 1907. 
Since then has practiced law. Composer of "Seven 
Memory Songs," "Seven Friendship Songs," and several 
others. He is unmarried. 

Address: 185 East State St., Columbus, Ohio. 



Class of Eighty-Five 43 



GEORGE ENOS GARDNER was born in Brookfield, 

Mass., April 6, 1864, and prepared for college at the 
Worcester High School. He was one of the four moni- 
tors in senior year and a speaker at commencement, 
winning the Bond prize. He was a member of Alpha 
Delta Phi, of Phi Beta Kappa, a senator, one of the 
eight debaters for the Hardy prize, the winner of the 
Thompson Latin prize, and editor of the Student, vice- 
president of the class junior year, and president senior 
year. 

From 1885 to 1887 he was engaged in teaching in 
Gouverneur, N. Y., and in Chicago and Elgin, 111., 
studying law as he had opportunity. Pie continued his 
study in Worcester and began practice there. He was 
also a teacher in the classical high school for ten years. 
In 1897 he left Worcester and became a teacher of 
law in Champaign, 111. The next year he was called 
to the deanship of the University of Maine Law School. 
From 1902 until his death, December 17, 1907, he was 
professor of law in the Boston University Law School. 
He was the author of tv/o standard law text books, 
Gardner's Review in Law and Equity, and Gardner 
on Wills. He was secretary of the Massachusetts Com- 
mission on Uniformity of Legislation. He was deeply 
interested in politics, and a popular political speaker, 
but he never consented to become a candidate for 
office. 

Gardner married, May 1, 1888, Mary M. Knowles 
of Potsdam, N. Y. There are three children: George 
Knowles, born December 17, 1891, now a student at 
Harvard; Katherine, born April 18, 1893, a student at 
Mt. Holyoke College; John Raymond, born October 
26, 1898. 

George Gardner's career more than made good the 
promise of his early manhood. He was distinguished 
as a lawyer, a strong teacher, a leader of men. Bostonia 



44 Amherst College 



for April, 1908, contained a sympathetic estimate of 
Gardner's personality as seen by his associates in 
Boston University. The writer speaks of his tireless 
energy, physical and mental, the depth and generosity 
of his friendships, his simplicity and kindness as a 
teacher, the optimism of his political and social ideals, 
the faith and courage with which he faced illness and 
death. 

FREDERICK COHOON GLADDEN, son of Rev. 

Washington Gladden, D.D., was born in New York 
City, September 10, 1863. In college he was a member 
of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity. He is a graduate 
of the Cornell University Law School, and for the 
last eleven years has been legal secretary to one of the 
justices of the Supreme Court in New York, and also 
engaged in the practice of law, principally in brief and 
counsel work. He was married in 1899. No children. 

"Have written about twenty short stories, eight of 
which have been accepted and published; also three 
plays, one of which has been successful in finding a 
producer. In other respects am guilty of no particu- 
larly noteworthy indiscretions." 

Address: Judges Chambers, County Court House, 
New York City. 

WILLIAM STANTON GLEASON, M. D., was born 
at Sag Harbor, L. I., June 24, 1860, prepared for col- 
lege at Williston Seminary, entered Amherst with '85, 
and left at the end of sophomore year. In college he 
was a member of Alpha Delta Phi. He graduated with 
honors from the medical department of New York 
University and after one year of hospital work began 
practice in Newburgh, N. Y. He is a member of the 
New York Academy of Medicine, president of the first 
district branch of the New York State Medical Stociey, 



Class of Eighty-Five 45 



attending physician to St. Luke's Hospital and the 
Tuberculosis Sanitarium, Newburgh, N. Y., consulting 
physician to the Highland Hospital, Matteawan, N. Y. 
He is a contributor to medical literature. 

He married Grace Hoysradt of Hudson, N. Y., De- 
cember 27, 1888. They have a son, Charles B., born 
June 22, 1890. 

Address: 143 Grand St., Newburgh, N. Y. 



WILLIAM ALBERT GORDON, a native of New 
York City, was born March 2, 1863, the son of Stephen 
T. Gordon, and prepared for college at Lyme, Conn., 
with Rev. E. F. Burr. In college he was a member 
of the Torch and Crown Society and Beta Theta Pi, 
and of the Olio board. He left Amherst at the close 
of the sophomore year and until 1888 was manager of 
the piano renting department of Chickering & Sons, 
New York City. In 1888-97 he conducted a general 
fire insurance agency, loan and real estate business in 
Grand Forks, North Dakota. He was president of 
the City Council of Grand Forks and acting mayor of 
the city. 

Served one term in the North Dakota Legislature 
as state senator and was appointed national bank 
examiner by the comptroller of the currency, Charles 
G. Davies, and served in that capacity six years. 

In 1897 he moved to Valley City, North Dakota, 
being elected secretary and manager of the Middlewest 
Fire Insurance Company, and still continues in that 
position. 

He married, August 6, 1891, Harriet Louise Wood- 
worth, daughter of Prof. H. B. Woodworth of the North 
Dakota State University. He has one daughter, 
Harriet Phoebe Gordon, aged 13 (1910). 

Address: Valley City, N. Dak. 



46 Amherst College 



REV. FREDERICK DAVIS GREENE was born in 
Broosa, Turkey, March 13, 1863, the son of the well- 
known missionary, Rev. J. K. Greene, D. D., and fitted 
for college at Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass. In 
Amherst he was a member of Psi Upsilon, won the 
Kellogg prize sophomore year, and was one of the six 
speakers for the Hyde prize in commencement week. 
In 1885-6 he studied at the Chicago Theological Semi- 
nary, 1886-8 at Yale Divinity School, and 1888-90 at 
Andover Theological Seminary. He received B. D. 
from Yale in 1888, and M. A. from Amherst the same 
year. 

He was pastor of the Congregational Church at 
Stanton, Neb., in 1888-9, and a missionary of the Ameri- 
can Board at Van, Turkey, from 1890 to 1894. He 
resigned at the time of the massacres of Americans in 
order to bring out the facts, and was very influential 
in arousing public opinion in behalf of these oppressed 
people by addresses in England and the United States, 
and through a book published by G. P. Putnam's Sons, 
entitled The American Crisis in Turkey, for the English 
edition of which Mr. Gladstone furnished the preface. 
He became secretary of the National Armenian Relief 
Association, and raised a quarter of a million dollars for 
the relief of massacre victims. He was also largely 
instrumental in raising an equal amount for the India 
famine sufferers in 1900. In 1899 he became financial 
agent of the American Bible Society, and continued in 
this work for six years, resigning in 1905 to enter social 
work. From 1906 to 1911 he was assistant general 
agent of the New York Association for Improving the 
Condition of the Poor, which position he has just 
resigned to become general secretary of the Hospital 
Saturday and Sunday Association of New York City. 

He married, June 25, 1890, Miss Sarah Anna Foster, 
daughter of William Phillips Foster, of Andover, Mass. 



Class of Eighty-Five 47 



They have four boys, Phillips F., 19 years old; Joseph 
K., 17; Edward B., 15; and David L., 10. 

Address: 125 Bellevue Ave., Upper Montclair, N. J. 

ALFRED MARVIN HALL, M. D., the son of Rev. 

Gordon and Emily B. Hall, was born at Northampton, 
Mass., May 12, 1862, and prepared for college at North- 
ampton High School and Chicago High School. During 
his college course he was a member of the Chi Psi fra- 
ternity and of the glee club. He was an editor of the 
Olio, occupying the position of business manager. 

After graduating at Amherst he graduated from the 
medical department of Northwestern University and 
later studied three years in Europe, making a specialty 
of the eye and ear. He has the degree A. M. from 
Amherst. He is practicing his profession in Chicago, 
and is ophthalmologist and otologist to the Passavant 
Memorial Hospital, also to Children's Memorial Hos- 
pital, as well as professor of otology, Chicago Poly- 
clinic. 

He was married September, 1896. 

Address: 47 Bellevue Place, Chicago, III. 

WILLIAM HALL HALLOCK, son of Rev. William 
Allen Hallock, was born in Gilead, Conn., March 27, 
1864, and prepared for college at the high school in 
Hartford. His college work was marked by brilliant 
scholarship. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, 
shared with Howland the Walker prize scholarship, 
was the winner of the Porter prize in natural philosophy 
and astronomy. Senior year, one of the eight speakers 
representing '85 on the commencement stage, and 
winner of the Bond prize. 

He studied three years at the universities of Leipsic 
and Berlin, Germany, devoting his time mainly to 



48 Amherst College 



physiological psychology. Failing health compelled him 
to return from Europe and likewise to decline several 
tempting offers to engage in teaching. During a vaca- 
tion from his work in Germany he served temporarily 
as tutor in Amherst College, in the absence of Professor 
Todd. He died at his father's home in Jamestown, 
N. Y., Feb. 13, 1894. "It is hard," he said, shortly 
before his death, "to be laid aside before my life work 
has begun." "The quiet manner of his death beauti- 
fully typified the religious quiet of his life." 

FREDERICK BEMIS HARLOW, son of William T. 
Harlow, was born in Worcester, Mass., May 28. 1864. 
He commenced his college course at Williams, entering 
Amherst in his junior year. He studied at the Harvard 
Law School, and has practiced law in Worcester and 
afterwards in Paris. 

Address: Worcester, Mass. 

EDWARD PARK HARRIS, Ph.D., the son of Prof. 
Elijah P. Harris, was born at Warsaw, N. Y., October 
30, 1862, and fitted for college at the Amherst High 
School and Williston Seminary. He was a member of 
Psi Upsilon, and won marked success as pitcher of the 
'varsity base ball team and in football. 

In 1886 he went to Germany for study and received 
his Ph.D. degree from the University of Gottingen in 
1888. He was instructor in chemistry in Amherst from 
1888 to December, 1893, when he became professor 
of chemistry in the Pennsylvania Military College, 
Chester, Penn. In 1899 he became head master of the 
Lakewood School for Boys, Lakewood, N. J., continu- 
ing until the spring of 1910, when he and his brother 
Frank inaugurated the Harris Laboratories of Analyti- 
cal and Industrial Chemistry, in New York. 



Class of Eighty-Five 49 



He married, on September 25, 1888, Miss Elizabeth 
Rogers Beach of Amherst. 

Address: 86 Fulton St., New York City. 

WILLIAM CUSHMAN HAWKS, a native of Charle- 
mont, Mass., and son of William A. Hawks, was born 
January 13, 1862, and prepared for college under private 
tutors in Northampton. In college he was a member 
of Phi Beta Kappa, the winner of the Topping prize 
sophomore year and of the French and Italian prize 
junior year. He was a teacher in the Amenia Institute, 
Amenia, N. Y., 1886-7, principal of Beverly College, 
Beverly, Ohio, 1887-9, assistant librarian of the Hart- 
ford Theological Seminary since 1889, becoming tutor 
in Aramaic in this institution in 1892. 

He continued in this position, winning the respect 
and esteem of all with whom he came in contact, up 
to the time of his death, which occurred January 21, 
1905. He had been in failing health in a general way 
for some months, due to heart disease, but was taken 
to a sanitarium for treatment only two days before 
his death. 

Hawks was a frequent attendant at commencement, 
and was always loyal to the interests of '85 and its 
members. We can all appreciate the words of 
Prof. Pratt, his associate in the seminary, who writes 
of him as follows: "His unusually accurate and careful 
mind was apparent at once, and his gifts in the acqui- 
sition of languages. Hampered by a bodily 
deformity that had resulted from an accident in youth, 
he was debarred from much physical activity and all 
public effort. But work in a library gave full scope 
for his mental acumen and for that methodical patience 
that became a second nature. He soon made himself 
an expert in the chief branches of routine library 
economy, focusing upon it all the faculties and fur- 



50 Amherst College 



nishings of his mind. In recent years nearly all of the 
responsible labor of classifying and cataloguing thou- 
sands of books fell to him — work calling for the highest 
degree of precision and thoroughness. That he was 
able to accomplish so much so well was due to his 
mental discipline and his indomitable persistence. 
Several successive librarians will bear witness that the 
successful on-go of this great library for these many 
years has been largely dependent on the knowledge, 
experience and perseverance of this unobtrusive but 
efficient assistant. ******* jj[g xhws became a 
part of the seminary's life in a peculiarly intimate 
way." 

JASON HINMAN was born in Holland, Vt., February 
14, 1862, the son of Dr. George A. and Mary P. Hin- 
man, and prepared for college at St. Johnsbury Academy. 
In college he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon 
and Phi Beta Kappa. He was a Kellogg speaker sopho- 
more year, a monitor, commencement speaker, and took 
the first Hardy prize. After graduation he spent half a 
year as instructor in the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute 
and then accepted a position with Ginn & Company, 
which he retained till September, 1887. He then took up 
the study of law, spending one year in the Columbia 
Law School. Entering the office of Merrill & Rogers, 
he became a partner in the firm in 1891. In October, 
1894, he became assistant United States attorney for 
the southern district of New York. Until this time he 
took an active part in politics, but now giving this up, 
devoted himself very closely to the duties of his office. 
He remained in this position till 1898, when he opened 
an office by himself, severing his connection with Merrill 
& Rogers. He was elected a trustee of Hahnemann 
Hospital in 1897, and in 1898 was put on the board of 
finance of the same institution. 



Class of Eighty-Five 51 



He was married, on June 29, 1893, to Carrie, daughter 
of G. Harrison and Mary J. Taplin of St. Johnsbury, 
Vt. Their only child, George, was born August 17, 
1894. Never robust, he suffered much from poor 
health during the last two years of his life, and died 
very suddenly on July 24, 1898. Mrs. Hinman with 
her son lives at No. 2 Spring St., St. Johnsbury, Vt. 
George is in the high school there, and expects to enter 
Amherst when he has finished his preparation. 

WILLIAM HODSDON, JR., the son of William and 
Kate L. (Crollns) Hodsdon, was born in Brooklyn, N. Y., 
May 16, 1861, fitting for college with Prof. I. S. Davi- 
son, Brooklyn, N. Y., and remaining with us less than 
one term. We have never been in touch with him, but 
upon investigation made by some of our members he 
was reported dead. 

ARTHUR JOHN HOPKINS, who fitted for college at 
the Bridgewater (Mass.) High School, was born in that 
town September 20, 1864, the son of Lewis S. Hopkins. 
In college he was a charter member of Thelta Delta Chi. 

He was engaged in teaching at Cotuit, Mass., 1886-8, 
and Peekskill, N. Y., 1888-90. He took the degree of 
Ph.D. from the chemical department of Johns Hopkins 
University in 1893, having held successively the univer- 
sity scholarship and fellowship in chemistry. He 
taught at Westminster College, Penn., 1893-4, was 
appointed assistant professor at Amherst College in 
1894, associate professor, 1895-07, and professor in 1907, 
Has published technical papers in chemical journals. 

He married, April 16, 1895, Margaret Sutton Briscoe, 
daughter of Cornelia D. Briscoe of Baltimore, and 
widely known as a novelist. He has one child, Cornelia 
Dushane, born January 18, 1896. 

Address: Amherst, Mass. 



52 Amherst College 



ELIHU RUSSELL HOUGHTON was born in Jersey 
City, N. J., March 26, 1864, the son of E. R. and Louise 
Seymour Houghton. He prepared for college at private 
schools and by two years' study at the Ithaca (N. Y.) 
High School. 

He took his degree in medicine at the Bellevue Hos- 
pital Medical School, New York City; was interne in 
the Brooklyn Hospital; interne at the Staten Island 
United States Marine Hospital; resident physician of 
the United States Immigration Service, New York 
City, and was commissioned assistant surgeon in the 
United States Marine Hospital Service, becoming sur- 
geon in August, 1894. In 1892-3 he was in the United 
States Marine Hospital at Vineyard Haven, Mass.; 
1893-4 was stationed at Havre, France. In October, 
1895, he resigned from the Hospital Marine Service 
and returned to New York City. 

For four years he was medical examiner of the New 
York Life Insurance Company, a member of the Board 
of Health and connected with the Good Samaritan 
Dispensary. On February 14, 1896, he was operated 
upon for appendicitis and died on the 19th. 

Thus, at a time when success in his practice seemed 
assured, the end came. Houghton had been one of 
the first four men in his class at Bellevue, had stood 
first in his examination for the Unites States Marine 
Hospital Service, and seemed destined to take high 
rank among the physicians of New York. "His unflag- 
ging energy, perseverance and courage against heavy 
odds, the difficulty of building up a practice in New 
York unaided and without capital, and his final achieve- 
ment, would be a story to inspire courage in the faint- 
hearted, or even in the strongest, if it could all be told." 
So writes one who knew Houghton well. 

On October 6, 1891, Houghton married Miss Mary 
Louise Phillips of Brooklyn, N. Y., a graduate of Smith 



Class of Eighty-Five 53 



College in the class of '91. His oldest son, Seymour 
Phillips Houghton, was born at Havre, France, May 
7, 1893, winning the '91 class cup of Smith College, 
which hitherto had been given to girls. There are two 
other sons, Augustus Sherrill, born January 15, 1898, 
and Russell Le Roux, born February 22, 1902. Mrs. 
Houghton makes her home in New York City. 

GEORGE GARTER ROWLAND, son of Henry and 
Jane Eliza Gray Howland, was born in Louisville, Ky., 
Nov. 19, 1865, and prepared for college in the Chicago 
West Division High School. At Amherst he was one 
of the four monitors chosen from his class on the basis 
of scholarship, and one of the eight representing the 
class on the commencement stage. He was a member 
of Psi Upsilon and of Phi Beta Kappa, shared with 
Hallock the Walker prize scholarship in mathematics, 
and won the Bertram Latin prize. He received the 
degree of A. M. from Amherst in 1888. 

After graduation he taught four years in the West 
Division and Northwest High Schools of Chicago. 
From 1892 to 1895 he was instructor in the Romance 
languages and literature in the University of Chicago, 
and in 1895 was appointed assistant professor of these 
languages. Three years were spent abroad. He is a 
member of the American Oriental Society of Chicago, 
and has contributed leading editorial articles to Chicago 
newspapers. He married, March 20, 1895, Miss Cora 
Emma Roche, daughter of John A. Roche, of Chicago. 

Address: 5741 Woodlawn Ave., Chicago, 111. 
[Would not reply to inquiries. Above is from old book, 
with latest address supplied.] 

EDWARD WAITE HUBBARD was the son of the late 
William H. Hubbard, principal of a school for girls 
at Louisville, Ky., where Edward was born, January 31, 



54 Amherst College 



1864. He prepared for college at Phillips Academy, 
Andover, Mass. In college, his work in English litera- 
ture was notably good, and he wrote numerous poems, 
of much promise, contributing to the columns of the 
Springfield Republican and other periodicals, besides 
writing verses for class occasions, and being finally grove 
poet of his class. After graduation, he was for some time 
telegraph editor of the Daily People and Patriot, of Con- 
cord, N. H. In February, 1886, he joined the staff of 
the Springfield Republican as a reporter, and during the 
year in which he lived, he distinguished himself by bril- 
liant work. 

He died of typhoid fever March 23, 1887. 

In speaking of him, Mr. Charles G. Whiting, the 
literary editor of the Republican said that the paper 
had had but two men in recent years whose work 
possessed a distinctively literary character, and of the 
two, Hubbard was one. "We expected great things of 
him," said Mr. Whiting. 



WILLIAM ALANSON HUNT, son of Oliver D. and 
Harriet M. (Hamilton) Hunt, was born at West Brook- 
field, Mass., December 10, 1860, and prepared for 
college in the Amherst high school and Phillips 
Academy, Andover. He was a member of Chi Phi 
and the catcher of the 'varsity nine throughout his 
college course. After graduation, he lived in Am- 
herst, where he was engaged in the insurance business 
with his father. For several years he was the clerk, 
treasurer and collector for the town of Amherst, and 
held these positions at the time of his death, which 
occurred September 29, 1893, from cancer of the stom- 
ach. He was also treasurer of the alumni athletic board. 
"Billy's" force of character and sweetness of disposi- 
tion were touchingly in evidence during his long illness. 



Class of Eighty-Five S5 



REV. JOSEPH HUTCHESON was born at Columbus, 
Ohio, February 18, 1862, the son of Joseph Hutcheson, 
and prepared for college at Keene, N. H. In college 
he was a member of Psi Upsilon, president of his class 
junior year, and president of the Olio board. After 
graduation he studied law in the office of the United 
States district court at Newberne, N. C, and was 
attorney at that place until 1887. He then studied 
theology at Yale Divinity School and at the Episcopal 
Theological School at Cambridge. From 1896 to 1901 
he was rector of the Epiphany, Lexington Ave. and 35th 
St., New York, a member of the University Club, and 
of the Century Association. In 1902 he became rector 
of St. Mark's Church, Warren, R. I., and still continues 
in that position. In 1906 he be came editor of the local 
newspaper, the Warren Gazette. In 1907 he was elected 
president of Warren Mfg. Co., which manufactures 
cloth and yarns and employs about 1400 people. In 
1908 he was chosen president and manager of the 
Warren Public Library Association. 

He married, July 2, 1885, Miss Daisy Houghton, 
daughter of Mrs. Louise Seymour Houghton of Am- 
herst, who died June 8, 1887. In 1904 he married 
Mrs. Sarah F. Waterman. 

Address: Warren, R. I. 

PERRY HERBERT IRISH, Ph.D., son of Perry E. 

Irish, was born in New York City on March 12, 1864, 
and prepared for college at the Amherst High School. 
His services as class treasurer of '85 in senior year, 
throughout the commencement period, won the admi- 
ration and gratitude of the class. He took a post- 
graduate course in chemistry in Gottingen, Germany, 
receiving the degree of Ph.D. in 1888. He was pro- 
fessor of chemistry in the Oregon Agricultural College, 
Corvallis, 1888 to 1891, since which time he has been 



56 Amherst College 



secretary and treasurer of the Sprudel Water Company, 
Mt. Clemens, Mich. He has been president of the 
Business Men's Association of Mt. Clemens; a member 
of the Board of Public Works; a police commissioner, 
and a director in two clubs. A cartoon in the Detroit 
Sonntagsblatt der Abend-Post shows Irish and another 
man training the hose on "Miss Mt. Clemens," who 
sits in a bathtub. 

He married, on July 2, 1889, Miss Emma Josephine 
Weber, daughter of Philip Weber of Corvallis, Oregon. 

Children: Perry Weber, born February 10, 1892; 
drowned July 6, 1900. Louise Cedelia, born June 29, 
1896. Herbert Elwood, born July 28, 1903. 

Address: Mt. Clemens, Mich. 

HENRY MORRISON JACKMAN, the son of B. K. 

and Isabella (Morrison) Jackman, was born in Lock 
Haven, Penn., July 3, 1861, and fitted for college with 
Edward B. Marsh of Amherst. He was with us two 
terms of freshman year, and after leaving college was 
bookkeeper for William Bering, Decatur, 111., but of 
late we have been unable to locate him. 

HOMER ROSEA JOHNSON, son of Alfred S. and 
P. C. (Townsend) Johnson, was born at Hartland, 
Huron County, Ohio, June 26, 1862, and prepared for 
college at Oberlin, Ohio, where he pursued freshman 
year studies. He entered Amherst at the beginning of 
sophomore year, becoming a member of the Chi Phi 
fraternity. The following year he returned to Oberlin, 
where he graduated, and then spent three years at 
the Harvard Law School, receiving the degrees M.A. 
and LL.B. Since that time he has been instructor in 
Western Reserve Law School, Cleveland, Ohio, and has 
practiced law as a member of the firm of M. B. & H. H. 
Johnson. 



Class of Eighty-Five 57 



He was married August 7, 1888, to Nettie, daughter 
of George A. and S. A. Whitcomb, of Morrison, 111., 
and had one child, Whitcomb Johnson, who was born 
August 23, 1890, and died Nov. 4, 1890. Mrs. John- 
son died November 1, 1890. He was married for the 
second time on June 22, 1896, to Gertrude Beggs of 
Cleveland, Ohio, who died August 11, 1896. He was 
again married October 2, 1901, to Miss Louise Pope of 
Cleveland, and they have three children, two girls and 
a boy: Janette, born July 26, 1902; Philip Cortelyou, 
born July 8, 1906, and Theodat, born August 13, 1907. 
Alfred Pope, born June 18, 1903, died June 11, 1908. 

He is a loyal '85 man, although with us only one year. 

Address: 1009 American Trust Building, Cleveland, O. 

REV. CHARLES ARTHUR JONES was born on 
August 10, 1857, at Chicago, 111., the son of the Rev. 
Lemuel Jones. He prepared for college at Phillips 
Academy, Andover, Mass. He was a member of Chi 
Phi while in college, took the freshman Social Union 
second prize, and during senior year was a member of 
the glee club. He graduated from the Union Theo- 
logical Seminary, New York City, and from October, 
1887, to August, 1890, was pastor of the Union Re- 
formed Church, Sixth Ave., New York, leaving on the 
latter date to become pastor of the First Congregational 
Church in Kane, Penn. He was president of the Classis 
of New York City in 1889; twice moderator of the 
Pennsylvania State Association of Congregational 
Churches, and three times delegate to the National 
Council; four years state registrar, and many years 
scribe of the Congregational District Association, and 
one of the editors of the Pennsylvania Congregational 
Messenger. 

In 1904 he became superintendent of home mis- 
sionary work of Congregational churches in the Middle 



58 Amherst College 

Atlantic States, which position he held until April, 
1908. Since Easter, 1909, he has been pastor of the 
Congregational Church at Haworth, New Jersey. 

He has written "Dutchland, Beloved," a New Jersey 
State song, and served on the industrial committee of 
the Congregational National Council, 1907-1910. 

He married, October 23, 1890, Miss Anna Westervelt 
Smith, daughter of Daniel Westervelt Smith of New 
York City. They have two sons: Daniel Westervelt, 
born July 24, 1896, and Charles Arthur, Jr., born Sep- 
tember 24, 1905. 

Address: Haworth, Bergen County, New Jersey. 

WILLIAM SANFORD KIMBALL, the son of Rev. 

James Parker (Amherst College, 1849) and Mary (Dickin- 
son) Kimball, was born at Falmouth, Mass., September 
30, 1863, and fitted for college in the Boston Latin 
School. In college he was a member of Delta Kappa 
Epsilon, and played left field and first base on the 
'varsity nine, and half-back on 'varsity football eleven. 

After graduation he was connected six months with 
the Kursheedt Mfg. Co., New York City, six months with 
the Hills Company, Amherst, Mass., and from 1886 to 
1889 with A. F. Bemis & Co., Foxboro, Mass. In 1889 
he became a member of the corporation of the A. F. 
Bemis Hat Co., Foxboro. In 1894 he withdrew from this 
corporation, and with H. D. Inman, formed the co- 
partnership of Inman & Kimball for the manufacture 
of men's, boys' and children's hats. In June, 1909, they 
added the manufacture of ladies' hats to their other 
lines, and recently acquired the water privilege known 
as the South Branch, which they expect to utilize for 
bleaching and dyeing purposes. 

In 1907 he was elected a member of the school board 
for three years. In March, 1909, he was elected select- 
man and was re-elected in 1910. In 1909, on the 



Class of Eighty-Five 59 



formation of the Foxboro National bank, he was elected 
a member of the board of directors, and vice-president. 
He is a member of the county committee of Y. M. C. A., 
and is also on the executive committee of the State 
Sunday School Association. 

He married Abbie Montague, daughter of Levi and 
Johanna Smith Stockbridge of Amherst, August 16, 
1887, and one child, Richard Montague, was born 
December 14, 1891. Mrs. Kimball died December 24, 
1891. August 24, 1897, he married Amelia Henderson 
Knight of Rockland, Maine. The children are Eliza- 
beth Whitney, born March 19, 1901 and Emily Parker, 
born January 21, 1904. Richard Montague enters 
Amherst with the class of 1914. 

Address: Foxboro, Alass. 



KEIZO KOYANO was born in Kumagai, Gaitama 
Ken, Japan, in February, 1855, son of Yeikichi and 
Kiku Koyano. He fitted for college at the Boys' High 
School, San Francisco, Cal. In college, he was deeply 
interested in Christian work, and after graduation 
studied theology at Yale and Andover, spending an 
additional year in post-graduate study at the latter 
seminary. In 1890-91, he was engaged in evangelistic 
work among the students of Tokyo, under the auspices 
of the Shawmut Church, Boston. From 1891 to 1898, 
he was kyoto, or head teacher of the Iwate Middle School 
and the Okayama Middle School. He is the joint 
translator with Mr. Muraki of two books, Isu-nohibon 
and Kiristo-no-shizen, published by Kei-sei-sha, Tokyo. 
He compiled several English text books to be used 
in middle schools. 

In 1899, he was appointed professor of English in the 
Tokyo Higher Commercial College, still holding the 
position; besides of teacher at Meiji laigaku, Senshu 



60 Amherst College 



Gakko, and the Okura Commercial School. In 1907, 
he was decorated with the sixth order of the Sacred 
Treasure. 

He married, December 29, 1891, Katsu Shinohara, 
daughter of Masakata and Moto Shinohara, of Yotsuya, 
Tokyo, and a graduate of the Tokyo ladies' institute 
and college. Children: Nohuko (daughter), born Sep- 
tember 12, 1892, died September 10, 1897; Yoshio 
(son), born December 15, 1893, died August 6, 1895; 
Kikue (daughter), born September 3, 1896; Shizue 
(daughter), born March 19, 1895, died November 6, 
1897; Toshio (son), born April 27, 1899; Yoshie (daugh- 
ter), born December 6, 1900; Masao (son), born January 
2, 1902; Mitsue (daughter), born March 31, 1904; 
Sumie (daughter), born July 7, 1909. 

Address Higher Commercial College, Tokyo, Japan. 

WILLIAM GEORGE LAMB, son of George E. Lamb, 
was born in South Hadley Falls, Mass., Nov. 26, 1862, 
and prepared for college at Williston Seminary, East- 
hampton. He was a member at Amherst of Alpha 
Delta Phi. He left college at the close of the winter 
term, junior year, on account of ill health, and has 
been engaged since in farming at his home. 
Address: South Hadley Falls, Mass. 

ELLSWORTH GAGE LANCASTER was born in 
Dixfield, Maine, June 18, 1861, and prepared for col- 
lege at the Augusta High School. 

After his course at Amherst he was instructor in 
Williston Seminary, Easthampton, 1885-6, and in 
Morgan Park Military Academy, Chicago, 1887-8. 
He studied at the Auburn (N. Y.) Theological Seminary 
1886-7; at the Chicago Baptist Seminary 1887-8; and 
at the Andover Theological Seminary 1888-9. He was 
pastor of the Congregational Church of Ashby, Mass., 



Class of Eighty-Five 61 



1889-91, and principal of the Southern Kansas Academy, 
Eureka, Kan., 1891-95, his labors there meeting with 
marked success. Student at Clark University, 1895-7; 
professor of psychology and pedagogy, Colorado Col- 
lege, 1897-1904. President of Olivet College since 
1904. M. A., Amherst; B. D., Andover; Ph. D., Clark 
University; LL.D., Colorado College. President of 
the department of child study of the National Educa- 
tion Society. 

"Students go from his classes with the feeling of having 
been in consultation with some one who is really inter- 
ested in them." He writes: "Am a crack-a-jack base- 
ball player and tennis player, still quick on my feet 
and very good at side-stepping." Writer of many 
magazine articles. 

He married, July 17, 1889, Bertha A. Chase of East- 
hampton, Mass., a graduate of Smith College in '86, 
who died September 17, 1899. Children: Elmer Ells- 
worth, May 22, 1891; Louis Gladstone, May 27, 1894. 
Married again June 25, 1907, Miss Elizabeth Esther 
Tyler. 

Address: Olivet, Michigan. 

CHARLES HOLBROOK LONGFELLOW, son of 

Gilbert Longfellow, was born in Machias, Maine, April 
9, 1860, and fitted for college in the Hallowell Classical 
Academy, Hallowell, Maine. He was a member at 
college of Theta Delta Chi. He studied two years each 
at the Union and Hartford Theological Seminaries, was 
pastor successively of the Congregational churches of 
Springfield, Maine; Eagle PvOck and Villa Park, Cal. 
After some years in the ministry, having suffered ill 
health from an attack of grippe, he retired to a ranch 
and his father's fruit farm. In 1904 he found himself 
strong enough to take a position as rural mail carrier 
"with a drive of thirty miles per day in the suburbs 



62 Amherst College 



of the most beautiful city in America." He writes, 
"The Lord has led me in strange ways which I do not 
understand, but I walk by faith and have no doubt 
of his wisdom and love;" also, "Still enjoy single bless- 
edness and fairly good health." 

Address: Pasadena, Cal., R. F. D. No. 1. 

WALTER CARROLL LOW, the son of George A, 
and Marcia (Cutler) Low, was born at St. Paul, Minn., 
July 7. 1864, and prepared for college in the Brooklyn 
Polytechnic Institute, While in college he was a mem- 
ber of Chi Psi and the glee club, being leader of that 
organization during senior year. He studied in the 
Columbia Law School, and School of Political Science, 
taking the degree of LL. B. He has since been prac- 
ticing in New York City. He is secretary of the Men- 
delssohn Glee Club of New York. 

He married, April 21, 1892, Jessie Blakely, daughter 
of David and Ada P. Blakely of New York City, and 
has three children: Carroll Blakely, born November 
18, 1894; Kenneth Brooks, born November 17, 1897, and 
Pauline, born December 23, 1904. 

Address: 346 Broadway, New York. 

REV. HERBERT GARDNER MANK was born at 
Waldoboro, Maine, September 14, 1863, the son of 
Jacob G. Mank, and prepared for college under a private 
tutor. In Amherst he was a member of Delta Upsilon 
and Phi Beta Kappa, and was one of the eight to rep- 
resent his class on the commencement stage. He 
studied one year at the Yale Divinity School and two 
years in the Andover Theological Seminary, where he 
took also six months of graduate study. 

He was pastor of the First Congregational Church 
of New Gloucester, Maine, from 1888 to 1898. He 
was chairman of the public library committee of New 



Class of Eighty-Five 63 



Gloucester and a member of the school board. Since 
1898 he has been pastor of the United Congregational 
Church of Lawrence, Mass. M. A., Amherst, 1888; 
B. D., Andover Seminary, 1899. Has done work at 
Harvard and Boston Universities in psychology and 
philology. Ph.D., Boston University, 1907. 

He married, on June 5, 1888, Miss Georgianna Wells, 
daughter of Eli Wells of Mercer, Maine. 

Children: Helen Gardner, born May 14, 1889; 
Gorham Carr, born December 25, 1890; died April 2, 
1892; Edith Webster, born September 20, 1892. 

Helen graduated from Mt. Holyoke College in 1909. 
and is the head of the biology department of the Law- 
rence High School. Edith is a freshman at Mt. Holyoke. 

Address: 556 Haverhill St., Lawrence, Mass. 

EDWARD MILLER, son of John Craig Miller of 
Philadelphia, a lawyer, was born in that city on July 
22, 1863, and fitted for college at the Rugby School, 
Bryn Mawr, Penn. In Amherst he was a member of 
Chi Phi and of the glee club. After graduation he 
studied law in New York City, where he engaged in 
the practice of his profession. Miller died of consump- 
tion in New York City, May 24, 1906. 

He married, October 1, 1892, Miss Bettina Wines, 
daughter of Rev. C. M. and Rachel Imbrie Wines. 
There are these children: Edward Imbrie, born Octo- 
ber 15, 1893; John Craig, born March 7, 1895; Paul, 
born July 21, 1900; Elizabeth, born November 14, 1902, 
died March 21, 1908; Rachel Imbrie, born August 15, 
1906. 

LUCIEN BIRDSEYE MILLER was born in Jordan, 
Onondaga Co., N. Y., January 8, 1865, the son of 
Dr. H. V. and Charlotte Birdseye Miller, and fitted 
for college at the Syracuse High School. He entered 



64 Amherst College 



Amherst in '85, sophomore year, and was forced by- 
failing health to leave at the close of the junior year. 
During his brief connection with the class, he won a 
high position for scholarship and manly qualities. He 
went to Florida in November, 1884, and in April follow- 
ing, he started on his return journey, but was not able 
to go further than Savannah, Ga., where he died of 
heart troubles, April 5, 1885. His remains rest in 
in Lake View Cemetery, Skaneateles, N. Y. 

JOSIAH WILLIAM MORRIS, son of James and 
Christine Harrison Morris, was born July 6, 1859, at 
Sterling, Blue Earth County, Minnesota, and fitted for 
college in the preparatory department of Carleton Col- 
lege, Northfield, Minn. At Amherst he was a charter 
member of Theta Delta Chi. 

He studied medicine at the College of Physicians and 
Surgeons, New York City, and since 1889 has practiced 
his profession at Jamestown, N. Y. He married, 
October 14, 1890, Mary Gray, daughter of Henry Gray, 
M. D., of Bloomfield, Conn. He has been twice presi- 
dent of the fourth district branch of the New York 
State Medical Association. He is vice-president of 
the New York Medical Association, and member of 
the council. He has been three times president of the 
Jamestown Medical Society. 

He has three children: Dorothy, born September 7, 
1892; Henry, born October 19, 1895; Sidney, born 
August 1, 1898. 

"Dorothy will enter Mt. Holyke in '12 and Henry 
will enter Amherst in '14." 

Address: 142 Forest Ave., Jamestown, N. Y, 

REV. HENRY HARVEY MORSE was born in New 
Haven, Conn., October 11, 1860, and fitted for college 
at Watertown, Mass. At college he v.^as closely iden- 



Class of Eighty-Five 65 



tified with religious work. He was graduated from the 
Yale Divinity School in 1888, and immediately entered 
the Christian ministry. He held pastorates in Rock- 
ford, Iowa, in Omaha, Neb., and in Milford and Dan- 
bury, Conn. 

Married to Alice G. Dibble of New Haven, Conn., 
November 7, 1895. One child, Marion Elizabeth, born 
September 12, 1898. 

Word of Morse's sudden death from heart disease, at 
Danbury, March 13, comes as these pages are closing. 

The following tribute is taken from a Danbury 
newspaper: 

"In 1906 he received a call from the Calvary Congre- 
gational Church, of this city, and accepted. At the 
time of the burning of the First Congregational Church, 
the congregation afterward worshipped in the church of 
which Mr. Morse was pastor. 

"The two churches later consolidated and Mr. Morse 
was called as associate pastor with the Rev. H. C. 
Meserve. On account of ill health he was forced to 
resign about a year ago, and at that time he retired 
from active ministry. Gradually his health failed 
until death took place last evening at his home. 

"His work among the two churches of this city is 
well known. At all times he worked faithfully for the 
advancement of their interests and won the love and 
esteem of his people. 

"In addition to the innumerable friends to mourn 
his death, he leaves a wife, Alice Dibble Morse; one 
daughter, Marion Elizabeth, and two brothers, Fred- 
erick B. of New Haven, and Albert H. Morse of Clarence, 
N. Y." 

JAMES DAVIS MURRAY entered college from Green- 
field and was with us three terms, '84-5. For a while 
he taught school in Charlemont, and later could be 



66 Amherst College 



reached in New York through the general delivery. 
Since 1905 letters have been returned from several 
addresses where it was thought he could be reached. 

CHARLES McKINSTRY NICHOLS, son of Thomas 
B. Nichols, M. D., was born December 19, 1862, at 
Crown Point, N. Y., and fitted for college at the high 
school in Plattsburgh, N. Y. In college he was a mem- 
ber of Delta Upsilon and the winner of the Sawyer 
gold medal for excellence in the study of anatomy. 
After graduation he went to Chicago and has been 
engaged in the real estate and fire insurance business 
since that time. 

He married, September S, 1888, Miss Mary Selfridge 
Edwards, daughter of the late C. G. S. Edwards. 

Address: 159 La Salle St., Chicago, 111. 

FREDERIC PERRY NOBLE, son of the Rev. Fred- 
erick A. and Lucy A. (Perry) Noble, was born at St. 
Paul, Minn., August 21, 1863, and prepared for college 
at Hopkins Grammar School, New Haven, Conn., and 
in the Chicago Central High School. While in college 
he was a senator, a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and 
at graduation took the Hyde prize. He received the 
degrees of B. D. and Ph.D. from the Chicago Theological 
Seminary, and during 1898-1901 took graduate courses 
in literature at the University of Chicago. He spent 
the years 1901-2 in Europe. He was secretary of the 
Chicago Congress on Africa at the Columbian Exposi- 
tion of 1893. In 1898 published "The Redemption of 
Africa," called "a masterpiece of information and sug- 
gestion." He has written for magazines, largely upon 
theological and historical topics. He has contributed 
to The Independent, the New England Magazine, Our 
Day, Bibliotheca Sacra, and The Missionary Review of 



Class of Eighty-Five 67 



the World. In 1908-9 he edited "The Student's New 
Reference- Work." During 1891-93 he was assistant 
librarian at Newberry Library, Chicago. 

On August 20, 1903, Noble married Josephine Edmand 
of Pella, Iowa, professor of Latin in Milwaukee-Downer 
College. Their daughter, Elizabeth Perry Noble, was 
born October 1, 1906. 

On March 15, 1910, he became an editor of the 
Spokes man- Review, in Spokane, Wash. 

Address: The Review Building, Spokane, Wash. 

SAMUEL EATON PACKARD, son of Samuel B. and 
Susie S. (Shaw) Packard, was born in Portland, Maine, 
September 24, 1862. Fitted for college at Portland 
High School. Bowdoin College, '80-82; Amherst Col- 
lege, '82-84; member of Psi Upsilon, manager of glee 
club. Traveled in South America, 1884-85; student of 
law, and entry clerk in the Library of Lehigh Univer- 
sity, Bethlehem, Penn., 1885-86. In real estate business, 
Omaha, Neb., 1886. 

[Have not been able to obtain recent information 
or address.] 

REV. FRANCIS LESEURE PALMER, son of a Pres- 
byterian clergyman, Rev. William Randall Palmer 
(Amherst, 1849,) and Clara Skeele (Mt. Holyoke 
Seminary,) was born in Fort Wayne, Ind., August 28, 
1863, and fitted for college at the high school in Chico- 
pee, Mass., and at Williston Seminary, 1881. In col- 
lege he was one of the founders of Mu Deuteron Charge 
of Theta Delta Chi, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. 
For two terms he was principal of Hopkins Academy, 
Hadley, Mass., and then for four years an assistant 
editor of Webster's International Dictionary, at New 
Haven, Conn. He studied one year at Yale Divinity 
School, and two years in the Episcopal Theological 



68 Amherst College 



School in Cambridge, Mass., taking the degree of B. D. 
there in 1892. He was ordained to the diaconate by- 
Bishop Phillips Brooks in 1892, and to the priesthood 
in 1893 by Bishop Randolph of Southern Virginia. 
From 1892 to 1895 he was rector of St. Paul's, Gardner, 
Mass., and from 1895 to 1898, of St. Paul's, Walla 
Walla, Wash. He then resumed work on Webster's 
International Dictionary for two years, living in Chico- 
pee. For ten years he was rector of Ascension Episco- 
pal Church in Stillwater, Minn., 1900-1910. 

In 1903 he spent four months in European travel, and 
in 1908 he went to London as a delegate to the Pan- 
Anglican Congress, and also traveled in Ireland, 
Germany and Austria. In July, 1910, Palmer accepted 
the chair of ethics and apologetics in Seabury Divinity 
School, Faribault, Minn. 

He married, October 1, 1895, Miss Elizabeth Elmore 
Paine (Smith College, 1889) of Oshkosh, Wis. 

Children: Georgiana, born January 20, 1900; Theo- 
dore Paine, born November 19, 1906. 

Address: Faribault, Minn. 

FRANK COLBY PEABODY, the son of Ezekiel and 
Lydia S. Peabody, was born in Wellesley, Mass., July 
24, 1864, and prepared for college at the Wellesley 
High School. While in college he was a member of 
Delta Upsilon, and was gymnasium captain during 
sophomore year. He did not return to college the fol- 
lowing year, and died after a lingering illness at his 
home in Wellesley, Nov. 11, 1883, sincerely mourned 
by every member of '85 for his genial good nature and 
manly qualities. 

FREDERIC WILLIAM PHELPS, son of Rev. Frederic 
B. Phelps, was born at Belchertown, Mass., April 13, 
1866, and prepared for college at the St. Johnsbury (Vt.) 



Class of Eighty-Five 69 



Academy. At Amherst he was a member of Beta 
Theta Pi, and of Phi Beta Kappa, was the winner 
of the Latin prize of sophomore year, was the cham- 
pion in tennis singles, and a member of the college 
team, and was one of the eight speakers chosen by 
scholarship to represent '85 on the commencement stage. 

He was instructor in the Greek language and litera- 
ture in Washburn College, Topeka, Kansas, in 1885, and 
held a full professorship thenceforward to 1892. Mean- 
while he spent a year in post-graduate study in Yale 
University, chiefly in the divinity school, where the 
lafe Professor Harper gave him very high commenda- 
tion. In 1887 he was instructor in the Amherst Summer 
School of Languages, and in 1890 instructor in the 
Bible School of the Bay View, Mich., Chautauqua 
Assemblies. In 1890-91 he was Kansas State Secretary 
of the American Institute of Sacred Literature. 

In the course of his college work at Topeka, Phelps 
preached frequently as supply in the largest churches; 
moreover was director of the Washburn College glee 
club. The pressure of work proved too much for his 
health, and in 1891-2 he engaged in geological survey 
work and preaching in California. He became in 1892 
an active professor in the Pacific Theological Seminary 
at Oakland, but resigned in January, 1893, and died 
of consumption at Tucson, Arizona, Feb. 27, 1893. 

EZRA PARMALEE PRENTICE, son of Sartell and 
Mary (Isham) Prentice, was born at Davenport, Iowa, 
July 29, 1863, and prepared for college in Albany, N. Y. 
While in college he was a member of Alpha Delta Phi 
and of Phi Beta Kappa, and the winner of one of the 
Hardy prizes. 

After graduation he was a student at the Harvard 
Law School, and until 1901 was engaged in the practice 
of Law in Chicago. He was at various times general 



70 Amherst College 



counsel of Calumet and Blue Island railway, the Chicago, 
Lake Shore and Eastern railroad, of the Illinois Steel 
Company, and of other corporations. Since 1901 he 
has been a member of the firm of Rowland, Murray 
& Prentice of New York. He is director or officer 
in the American Linseed Company, of the New York 
Trust Company, and of other corporations. 

Mr. Prentice's publications upon topics connected 
with constitutional and corporation law are notable. 
In 1898, with the assistance of Mr. John G. Egan, 
he published a work on "The Commerce Clause of the 
Federal Constitution," an exhaustive treatment of 
federal law. His book on "The Federal Power over 
Carriers and Corporations" appeared in 1907. 

He is also the author of: 

"Speculation in Damage Claims," 

North American Review, February, 1897. 
"Where Jury Bribing Begins," 

Arena, September, 1899. 
"Railway Consolidation on the Illinois-Indiana Line." 

Harvard Law Review, February, 1899. 
"John C. Calhoun and the Labor Question," 

Harvard Law Review, May, 1900. 
"Origin of the Right to Engage in Inter-State Commerce," 

Harvard Law Review, November, 1903. 
"State-Monopolies of Interstate Transportation," 

North American Review, April, 1904. 
"Chief Justice Marshall on Federal Regulation of Interstate 
Carriers," 

Columbia Law Review, February, 1905. 
"Federal— Common Law— and Interstate Carriers." 

Columbia Law Review, May, 1909. 
"An American Battle in Foreign Waters," 

A view of the fight between the Kearsarge and Alabama 
from contemporary French sources. 

Harper's Monthly, November, 1910. 
"Congress and the Regulation of Corporations," 

Harvard Law Review, January, 1906. 

Mr. Prentice married Alta Rockefeller, daughter of 
John D. Rockefeller, January 17, 1901. Their son, John 



Class of Eighty-Five 71 



Rockefeller Prentice, was born December 17, 1902, and 
a daughter, Mary Adeline Prentice, was born Novem- 
ber 29, 1907. 

Address: 35 Wall St., New York City. 

JEREMIAH BAUMAN REX of Huntingdon, Penn., 
was the son of William H. and Mary E. (Bauman) Rex, 
and was born in Clearfield, Penn., September 30, 1859. 
He fitted for college at Dickinson Seminary, Williams- 
port, Penn., and was with us in '81-82, three terms. 
He studied law at Chambersburg, Penn., and was 
admitted to the bar 1883. For some time thereafter 
he practiced his profession at Huntingdon, Penn. His 
last letter is dated April 21, 1905, from the Boulder 
Club, Boulder, Colorado, and therein he states that 
in 1900 he escaped death by the closest possible margin. 
Just what the particulars were he did not say, and 
subsequent attempts to reach him at Huntingdon and 
Boulder have been fruitless. Within the last year the 
secretary has endeavored to enlist the services of other 
Amherst men in those regions, but without success. 

REV. FREDERICK BATES RICHARDS, the son of 

Charles and Caroline (Clark) Richards, was born at 
Enfield, Mass., May 29, 1859, and fitted for college at 
Williston Seminary, Easthampton, where he was val- 
edictorian of his class, and one of the founders and 
first editors of the school paper, the Willistonian. At 
Amherst he was a member of Psi Upsilon, class president 
in freshman year, a Kellogg speaker sophomore year, 
a senator, member of Phi Beta Kappa, junior drawing, 
a Hardy debater, editor of the Student, and class poet. 
After graduation he taught Latin in Cheltenham 
Academy, Philadelphia, for one year, and was principal 
of the high school in Kalamazoo, Mich., for three years. 
He then entered Yale Divinity School, graduating in 



72 Amherst College 



1891. He received the degree of M.A. from Amherst 
in 1888, and B.D. from Yale in 1891. He completed 
the work required for the degree of Ph.D., except the 
thesis, in New York University from 1901 to 1904. 
From 1890 to 1894 he was a home missionary in West 
Superior, Wis., organizing and establishing with build- 
ing Hope Congregational Church. From 1894 to 1896 
he was pastor of Bethany Church, New York, and later 
associate pastor of the Broadway Tabernacle. From 
1898 he was pastor for seven years of the Foutreenth 
Street Presbyterian Church, New York. From 1905 to 
the present time he has been pastor of Phillips Con- 
gregational Church, Boston. He has been a special 
lecturer at Yale Divinity School, moderator of the 
Boston (Congregational) Ministers' Meeting, and has 
held various positions in connection with the activities 
of his denomination in Boston. 

He married, December 28, 1898, Miss Bessie B. 
Chittenden, New York City. 

Address: 49 M St., South Boston, Mass. 

WARREN E. RUSSELL was born in Massillon, Ohio, 
October 31, 1862, the son of Thomas Henry and Eleanor 
Dunn Russell, and fitted for college at Harcourt Place 
Academy, Gambier, Ohio. He was a member of class 
of 1885, Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, during its 
freshman and sophomore years, and entered Amherst 
at the beginning of junior year. He was vice-president 
of the class during senior year. He was a member of 
Beta Theta Pi. 

He studied law at Harvard, and practiced his pro- 
fession in Salt Lake City in 1890-91, and was the head 
of the legal department of The Russell & Co., at Massi- 
lon from 1891 to 1895, and is still a director of that 
company. From 1903 to 1909 he was the president 
and treasurer of the Massillon Light, Heat and Power 



Class of Eighty-Five 73 



Co. Since January, 1909, he has been practicing law 
in that city. Russell was married, February 28, 1903, 
to Hermoine J. A. Dieterichs. No children. 

Address: Suites H. Warwick Building, 15 North 
Erie Street, Massillon, Ohio. 



CARLOS POMEROY SAWYER, son of Daniel G. 
and Cordelia Barstow Sawyer, was born in Chicago, 
III., March 14, 1861, and prepared for college at the 
Chicago High School. During the one year in which 
he was a member of '85 he was a member of Chi Phi, 
was one of the five speakers for the Kellogg prize, 
and was class treasurer. 

From 1882 to 1884 he studied law in an office in 
Saginaw, Michigan, and since the latter date has prac- 
ticed his profession in his native city. Since 1889 he 
has been annually elected honorary librarian and as 
such, a member of the Board of Managers of the Chic- 
ago Bar Association. He is unmarried. 

Address: Office, Title and Trust Building, Chicago. 
Residence, 1353 West Adams Street. 



THEODORE WOOLSEY SCARBOROUGH was a 

native of Cincinnati, Ohio, the son of W. W. Scar- 
borough, a retired capitalist of that city. He fitted for 
college at Adams Academy, Quincy, Mass., and during 
his college course was a member of Beta Theta Pi and 
of the football team in freshman year. He was engaged 
for a short time in the railroad business in Meridian, 
Miss., and in 1886 went to New York City, where he 
became connected with Brice & Thomas, brokers and 
capitalists. 

He married in the fall of 1889, at Cincinnati, Miss 
Laura Hoadley, daughter of Hon. George Hoadley of 



74 Amherst College 



Hoadley, Lauderbach & Johnson, attorneys, New York 
City. 

Scarborough died in New York November 8, 1896, 
leaving a widow and one child. 



SIDNEY ALGERNON SHERMAN was born in North 
Brookfield, Mass., April 24, 1862, the son of John J. 
and Martha Tyler Sherman. He prepared for college 
at North Brookfield High School and by one year of 
private study. At college he was a founder and charter 
member of Theta Delta Chi and a member of Phi Beta 
Kappa. 

Principal of the Amherst High School, 1885-90. 
Teacher in Penn Charter School, Philadelphia, 1890-91, 
and lived in Beverly, New Jersey. Since then he 
has been assistant in the Classical and English High 
Schools of Providence, R. I. Ph.D., Brown University, 
social and political science and political economy, 
1900. 

Superintendent of playgrounds, chairman Citizens' 
Playground Committee; secretary of the Municipal 
League; treasurer of the Rhode Island Institute of 
Instruction; vice-president of the Radical Club; nomi- 
nated twice as commissioner of industrial statistics; 
editor of The State; president of the Rhode Island Insti- 
tute of Instruction; published "Municipal Economy" 
and "Advertising, its History and Present Forms," 
together with numerous newspaper articles and public 
addresses. 

He married, December 20, 1887, Daisy Fairchild of 
Amherst, daughter of the late Edwin C. Fairchild. 
There are three children: Daisy Fairchild, born October 
12, 1888; Edwin Sidney, born May 30, 1890; John 
Hope, born September 4, 1891. 

Address: Rock Ridge Farm, Lincoln, R. I. 



Class of Eighty-Five 75 



EDWARD SIMONS was born in North Adams, Mass., 
May 31, 1863, the son of David S. Simons, and prepared 
for college in the high school at Greenfield, Mass. 

In college he was a member of Delta Upsilon, a sena- 
tor, and one of the cast of "The Rivals" in senior 
dramatics. After graduation he studied law at Colum- 
bia and practiced in New York City several years, 
returning, upon the death of his father, to his home in 
Greenfield to look after the extensive interests left to 
him. Returned to New York in 1897 and devoted his 
time to the management of the business interests of 
Clyde Fitch. 

Address: 135 East 65th Street, New York, City. 

EDWARD ELLMS SKEELE, son of John H. and 
Clara M. (Ellms Skeele,) was born in Kenosha, Wis., 
September 7, 1863; fitted for college at the Chicago 
High School. Amherst College '81-83; was a member 
of Delta Upsilon. In the lumber business at Chicago, 
connected with Estabrook-Skeele Lumber Co., also 
interested in the Turtle Lumber Co., Columbus, Miss.; 
Newhouse Mill and Lumber Co., Gould, Ark., and 
the Gould Southwestern Railway Co. Was married, 
December 31, 1891. Has two children, a girl named 
Ruth, seventeen years of age, and a boy named Edward, 
fifteen years of age. 

Address: Fisher Building, Chicago, 111. 

CHARLES HUNTINGTON SMITH, son of Charles 
and Martha Huntington Smith, was born in Boston, 
July 26, 1860. He prepared for college at Powers 
Institute, Bernardston, Mass., and at the Greenfield, 
Mass., High School. At college he was a member of 
the Olio board and of the cast in senior dramatics, and 
was the ivy poet of class day. He was also the orator 
at the cremation of "Anna Lytt." After graduation 



76 Amherst College 



he taught for a year at Dennis on Cape Cod. He then 
lived for nearly nine years in Chicago, first as a teacher, 
and afterwards, for most of the remaining time, holding 
a position in the general freight department of the 
Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company. In the 
fall of 1895 he resumed teaching in the Clinton Clas- 
sical School at Peekskill, N. Y. Two years later he 
became headmaster of Columbia Institute in New 
York City, where he remained for ten years. In 1907 
he became part owner and co-principal of Mohegan 
Lake School, a military school for boys at Mohegan 
Lake, four miles from Peekskill. 

He was married, April 6, 1898, to Miss Anna Marion 
Sykes of Peekskill, N. Y. Their only child, Helenar 
Huntington Smith, was born December 9, 1899. 

Address: Mohegan Lake, Westchester County, N. Y. 

ERNEST HERMAN SMITH was born in Boston, 
July 13, 1863, the son of George and Annie E. Smith. 
He fitted for college in the Boston Latin School, and 
While in college was a charter member of Theta Delta 
Chi and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He took the 
degree of M. D. at the college of Physicians and Sur- 
geons, New York City, and has since practiced his 
profession in Redding, Conn. He has been appointed 
medical examiner and health officer and post surgeon 
of Fairfield County, as well as examiner for various 
insurance companies. He is first vice-president of the 
Mark Twain Library Association. 

He married, April 9, 1890, Mary C. Wakeman, daugh- 
ter of M. H. Wakeman of Redding. He has two 
children: Herman W., born March 12, 1891; Homer 
M., born May 17, 1894. 

Address: Redding, Conn. 



Class of Eighty-Five 77 



REV. SHERROD SOULE, the son of Rev. George and 
Caroline (Litchfield) Soule, was born at Hampton, 
Conn., October 29, 1860, and prepared for college at 
the high school in Danielson, Conn., and in the pre- 
paratory department of Oberlin University, where he 
also took freshman year. He entered Amherst at 
beginning of sophomore year, and while there was a 
member of Psi Upsilon, senior historian, a Hardy 
debater, a Hyde orator, and took part in senior dra- 
matics. After graduation he studied theology in Union 
Theological Seminary, New York, graduating with the 
degree of B. D. in 1888; last year in the seminary, pastor's 
assistant to Rev. C. H. Parkhurst, D. D. He then 
became pastor of the Dane Street Congregational 
Church, Beverly, Mass., where he remained until Feb- 
ruary, 1892, when he resigned to accept the pastorate 
of the Congregational Church of Naugatuck, Conn. 
He remained there for seventeen and one half years, 
led in the building of a fine church edifice, and u-as 
strongly influential in church and local civic circles, 
acquiring a reputation as an after-dinner speaker. 
After serving for three years as director, in July, 1909, 
he was elected superintendent of the Congregational 
Missionary Society of Connecticut, which position he 
now holds. He was college preacher at Amherst in 
June, 1910. He is the author of many articles in maga- 
zines and periodicals. 

On December 6, 1893, he married Mary Caroline 
Haines of Somersworth, N. H. They have had four 
children, as follows: Sherrod, Jr., born January, 1895, 
died in August, 1896; Theodate Haines, born Aiay, 
1896; George, born in August, 1897, and Lawrence 
Litchfield, born in June, 1901. 

Address: 426 Asylum St., Hartford, Conn. 



78 Amherst College 



HAROLD STEARNS was born in Bombay, India, 
May 31, 1863, the son of William Stearns, the donor 
of the College Church, and grandson of President 
Stearns of Amherst College. He prepared for college 
in the Amherst High School and at Phillips Andover 
Academy. He was a member of Psi Upsilon, and was 
beloved by classmates for his genial disposition. He 
was compelled to leave college early in sophomore year, 
and took a long sea trip to Java and Japan for his health. 
On returning he studied medicine at Kansas City and 
Denver, and later practiced medicine in Colorado. 

He married Miss Mattie Wattrus of Brattleboro, Vt., 
by whom he had three children. Two of these, Harold 
and Theodore, are still living. Stearns died in Idaho 
Springs, Colorado, July 4, 1890, after a protracted 
illness. 

ELISHA MORSE STEVENS, of the law firm of Niles, 
Stevens, Underwood & Mayo, of Lynn, Mass., was 
born at South Paris, Maine, January, 5, 1864, son of 
Rufus Stowell Stevens, and prepared for and entered 
college at Northwestern University, Evanston, 111. He 
came to Amherst College at the opening of sophomore 
year and was a member of Beta Theta Pi and Phi 
Beta Kappa. He took the degrees of L.L. B. and 
M. A. at Harvard University, and was engaged for 
several years in the practice of his profession at Minne- 
apolis, Minn. He moved to Lynn in August, 1896. 
Stevens is special justice of the police court of Lynn. 

He married, September 14, 1892, Miss Mary Felton 
LaCroix, of Lynn, who died May 24, 1897. He married 
on December 14, 1904, Miss Helen Lucas Fuller of 
Needham, Mass. There are three children: Rufus 
LaCroix, born May 22, 1897; Alvin Gay, born Sep- 
tember 30, 1905; Marion Fuller, born August 29, 1909. 

Address: 115 Green St., Lynn, Mass. 



Class of Eighty-Five 79 

ARTHUR F. STONE was born in St. Johnsbury, Vt., 
February 18, 1863, being the eldest son of Charles 
Marshall and Sarah (Fairbanks) Stone. He was gradu- 
ated from St. Johnsbury Academy in the class of 1881. 
While at college he was a member of the Beta Theta 
Pi fraternity and also made Phi Beta Kappa senior 
year. After graduation he began newspaper work on 
the Northampton Daily Herald, where he remained over 
two years. Through 1888 he was on the Evening News 
staff at Fall River. In 1889, Stone returned to St. 
Johnsbury to become associated with his father, who 
had been for nearly thirty-five years the editor of the 
Caledonian. Upon his father's death in 1890, Stone 
became the editor of the paper, a position he held for 
twenty years. On January 23, 1909, he was appointed 
postmaster at St. Johnsbury by President Roosevelt, 
being the only active candidate for the office, which 
was then vacant. Soon after his appointment he sold 
all his interest in the newspaper to give his entire time 
to his government position. 

He is active in the various interests of the com- 
munity, having been a member of the school board, 
president of the village, and secretary of the Board 
of Trade. He is clerk of the North Congregational 
Church and the superintendent of its Sunday School. 
He is a Blue Lodge and Scottish Rite Mason and a 
member of the tercentenary commission appointed by 
the governor that arranged for the 300th anniversary 
of the discovery of Lake Champlain. He has been 
president of the Vermont Press Association and is an 
active member of many state organizations. Stone has 
traveled extensively, having twice visited Europe and 
made three trips to the Pacific coast. 

On January 1, 1890, he married Helen Lincoln, of 
Northampton, a graduate of Smith College in the class 



Amherst College 



of 1888. They have four children; Edith L., Robert 
L., Eleanor F., and Laura H. Stone, 
Address: St. Johnsbury, Vt. 



JAMES THOMAS SYMONS was born in Platteville, 
Wisconsin, April 4, 1857; resided for some time in 
Laramie, Wyoming, and prepared for college in Phil- 
lips Academy, Andover. He was a member of Delta 
Kappa Epsilon. After an enviable record as student, 
speaker and athlete, and following a period of protracted 
effort in his studies, he became insane near the close 
of the senior year, and was taken to the Northampton 
Lunatic Hospital, where he remained till his death, 
August 6, 1904. 



REV. WILLIAM GREENOUGH THAYER, D. D., 

son of Robert H. and Hannah (Appleton) Thayer, was 
born in New Brighton, Staten Island, New York, 
December 24, 1863, and fitted for college in a private 
school in Orange, N. J. 

While in college he was a member of Psi Upsilon 
and took part in senior dramatics. After graduation 
he studied two years in Union Theological Seminary, 
New York City, and one year at the Episcopal Theo- 
logical School in Cambridge, receiving the degree of 
B. D. He was founder of St. Andrews' P. E. church 
in Ayer, Mass., and rector from 1889 to 1894; and 
teacher in Groton School 1886-7 and 1889-94. From 
1894 to the present he has been head-master of St. 
Mark's School, Southboro, Mass. Since 1900 he has 
also served as rector of St. Mark's Church. He has 
been the preacher frequently at schools and colleges, 
including Exeter, Andover, Harvard, Amherst, etc., and 
in 1901 preached the annual sermon before the con- 



Class of Eighty-Five 81 



vention of the Diocese of Massachusetts. He has also 
since 1902 been a member of the standing committee 
of that diocese. 

In politics he has been active in local and state affairs, 
as moderator of town meetings, delegate to Republican 
state convention, etc. In 1906 he received the honorary 
degree of M. A. from Columbia University, and in 
1907 that of D. D. from Amherst. 

He was married June 1, 1891, to Violet, daughter 
of William C. and Margaret (Sigourney) Otis of Boston, 
and has six children, four boys and two girls. 

Address: Southboro, Mass. 

GEORGE PARSONS TIBBETTS, the son of E. A. • 

and J. N. Tibbetts, was born at Somersworth, N. H., 
May 27, 1864. He fitted for Phillips Exeter, pursued 
the regular course at Amherst and later studied philos- 
ophy and mathematics there as post-graduate, receiv- 
ing the degree A. M. After teaching at Stockbridge 
as principal of the high school, he became instructor 
in mathematics at Williston in January, 1890. His 
"College Requirements In Algebra" has been published 
by Ginn & Company. 

He has made an unusual success of teaching at Willis- 
ton Seminary, and his department there ranks very 
high, as the following note from a Yale examiner shows: 
"The best set of mathematical papers for entrance 

handed in for many years was written by of 

Williston Seminary, Easthampton." 

He is a member of the International Committee on 
Mathematical Teaching, and is unmarried. 

Address: Williston Seminary, Easthampton, Mass. 

EDWIN STARR TIRRELL, JR., was born at Rock- 
land, Mass., February 9, 1863, the son of Edwin S. 
Tirrell, and fitted for college at Adams Academy, 



82 Amherst College 



Quincy. In college he was a member of Delta Upsilon, 
played baseball, and was a member of the cast of "The 
Rivals" in senior dramatics. 

He taught a district school in Wells, Maine, during 
the winter of 1885; in the spring of 1886 was sub-master 
of the Rockland, Mass., High School; in September 
of the same year became sub-master of the high school 
at Spencer, Mass., and a year later was chosen prin- 
cipal of this School. David Prouty, who in his will 
left a sum of money to Amherst College, erected and 
presented to the town of Spencer a ^50,000 high school 
building which was opened on September 1, 1889, with 
Tirrell as principal. Tirrell was principal of the Oliver 
Ames High School at North Easton, Mass., 1901-5. 
Resigned at North Easton in 1905, and was chosen to 
organize the newly established Warwick (R. I.) High 
School, there he continued as principal until 1907, when 
he was elected superintendent of schools and principal 
of the high school at Nahant, Mass., where he is now 
living. 

He married on June 27, 1888, Miss Grace Norwood 
Whiting, daughter of Edwin W. Whiting of Rockland. 
Mrs. Tirrell died November 26, 1902. 

Children: Edwin W., born October 19, 1889, died 
December 5, 1889; Ethel Norwood, born December 3, 
1892; Alice Lane, born December 22, 1901, died Sep- 
tember 1, 1903; Grace Bicknell, born December 22, 1901. 

Address: Nahant, Mass. 

GEORGE LORING TODD, the son of James P. and 
Desire (Loring) Todd, was born in New Boston, N. H., 
June 19, 1859, and prepared for college in Francestown 
Academy, Francestown, N. H. In college he was a 
member of Delta Kappa Epsilon. 

After graduation he studied theology at the Auburn 
Theological Seminary. In December, 1887, he went to 



Class of Eighty-Five 83 



La Paz, Bolivia, where he resided until October, 1889, 
as United States vice-consul-general, director and treas- 
urer of the Bolivian National Institute, and cashier 
of the Empress Titicassa Mining Co. Returning to 
the United States, he became pastor of the Congre- 
gational Church in Brookline, N. H., where he remained 
until 1892, going from there to Merrimac, Mass., to 
become pastor of the First Congregational Church. He 
continued in this pastorate till 1900, when he went 
to Cuba to take charge of the Congregational Home 
Missionary work in that island. He was engaged in 
this work, residing in Havana, until the society aban- 
doned its work in 1909. Since then he has been inter- 
ested in Cuban real estate, and has spent much of 
his time on the island, though he has made his home 
in Westfield, N. J., where the younger children are 
now attending school. 

He married, December 20, 1887, Alice A. Gould, 
daughter of Elijah F. Gould of Antrim, N. H. There 
are seven children: Elizabeth Jacobs, born October 10, 
1888; Alice Loring, born August 9, 1890; Mildred 
Evelyn, born March 22, 1892; George Loring, born 
January 28, 1894; James Fuller, born May 10, 1895; 
Emily Gould, born November 7, 1902; Helena Mercedes, 
born October, 13, 1904. 

The eldest daughter is in the Children's Memorial 
Hospital in Chicago, and the second daughter has been 
teaching in the Isle of Pines, Cuba. Mr. Todd received 
the degree of doctor of divinity from Wheaton College, 
Wheaton, 111., in 1904. 

Address: 108 Broad St., Westfield, N. J. 



FRED L. TORREY, JR. Of Torrey, we have been 
unable, either by mail or personal investigation, to 
obtain any information. 



84 Amherst College 



JAMES EATON TOWER was born in Groton, Mass., 
March 17, 1863, prepared for college in the North 
Brookfield (Mass.) High School and the Cotting High 
School, Arlington, Mass. Was a member in college of 
Beta Theta Pi, and delivered the grove oration on class 
day. Immediately after graduation Tower entered the 
employ of the Phelps Publishing Company, Spring- 
field, Mass., with which he was connected until April 
1, 1911. In September, 1900, he became the editor 
of the Good Houskeeping Magazine, which position he 
still holds, though the magazine is now published at 
381 Fourth Ave., New York City. 

Address: 381 Fourth Ave., New York City. 



EDWARD ARTHUR TUCK is a native of Milford, 
N. H., where he was born February 6, 1860, the son 
of Eben Tuck. He fitted for college at the Worcester 
Academy, Worcester, Mass., and the first portion of 
his college course was taken at Brown University. He 
was a founder and charter member of Thelta Delta Chi 
and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He studied one 
year in the Chicago Congregational Theological Sem- 
inary and two years in the Rochester Baptist Seminary. 

He was engaged in mission work for the First Baptist 
Church of Newburgh, N. Y., two years. On October 4, 
1891, he organized the People's Baptist Church of 
Newburgh. Later, he was at West Stewartstown, 
N. H., as missionary for the outlying districts. He 
is at present pastor of the West Congregational Church 
in Concord, N. H. 

He writes, "Believing in the kingdom of God, 
details of which would not interest men!" 

He married, February 17, 1897, Grace E. Whitson 
of Newburgh, N. Y. 

Address: Concord, N. H. 



Class of Eighty-Five 85 



EDWIN BENJAMIN TUCKER, the son of Cummings 
H. and Mary Alice Tucker, was born in New York City- 
July 31, 1862, and prepared for college at Fairview 
Academy, Saratoga Springs, New York. While in 
college he was a member of the Alpha Delta Phi and 
was president of the musical association, of the lawn 
tennis association, and of the athletic association. He 
took part in senior dramatics. 

He studied law at Columbia, where he obtained the 
degree of LL. B. Until 1893 he resided in New York 
City, engaged in the practice of law, when ill health 
compelled a change of residence to Orange, N. J. He 
never recovered his health, and died at the residence 
of his mother. No. 1 Prospect Terrace, East Orange, 
N. J., November 10, 1902, of spinal meningitis. Wood- 
ruff, Prentice and Soule attended the funeral and a 
number of Amherst men from other classes were present. 
Tucker was senior steward of Hope Lodge F. and A. M., 
of East Orange. 

Through the courtesy of his brother, the class at 
the recent commencement was presented with Ned's 
class album, which was deposited in the college library. 

ERVIN ALDEN TUCKER was born at Attleboro, 
Mass., February 2, 1862, the son of Almon H. and 
Harriet (Sweet) Tucker. He fitted for college at the 
home high school and in Mowry and Goff's Classical 
School at Providence, R. I. He was a member in 
college of Phi Beta Kappa, and shared with Turner, '84, 
the French and Italian prize. He rendered the class 
conspicuously able service in senior year as chairman 
of the finance committee. He graduated with the 
degree of B. S. 

For one year after graduation he was a teacher in 
Betts' Academy, Stamford, Conn., entering the College 
of Physicians and Surgeons in New York in 1886. His 



86 Amherst College 



notable record in his chosen field began at once. For 
two years he supported himself largely by quizzing 
other students and taking shorthand notes, which after- 
ward became famous in their published form as "Tuck- 
er's Notes." He graduated in '89 as one of the ten 
honor men of his class, winning the second Harsen 
prize of three hundred dollars. In 1888, Amherst 
College granted him the degree of A. M. He spent 
about a year in special study in Germany, fitting himself 
for the position of resident obstetrician at the Sloane 
Maternity Hospital. This position he held 1890-95, 
contributing in no small measure to the remarkable 
growth that the hospital experienced during that period. 

He resigned in 1895 to become a specialist in obstet- 
rics, a new and daring departure at that time. His 
success was instantaneous; Dr. Frank Sidney Fielder, 
in a memorial address, asserted that Tucker "became 
easily the foremost obstetrician of the country." In 
1900, Dr. Tucker resigned his service as attending phy- 
sician to the hospital and various other duties there 
on account of his very extensive private practice. He 
was a member of the New York Academy of Medicine, 
the New York Obstetrical Society, the Hospital Gradu- 
ates' Club, The West End Medical Society, and the 
Society of the Alumni of the Sloane Maternity Hospital. 
His death, from pneumonia, occurred on March 3, 1902. 

He married, April 5, 1892, Miss Georgeanna Crispell, 
of Rondout, N. Y. 

To quote from a circular issued by Whitman: "If 
anything was needed to accentuate our knowledge of 
Dr. Tucker's remarkable progress and high attainments, 
it would be done most emphatically by the notices and 
resolutions appearing in the medical journals and in 
the minutes of the New York Obstetrical Society and 
other organizations of which he was a member. This 
class is in possession of a very complete file of these. 



Class of Eighty-Five 87 



and of an excellent portrait, duplicates of which have 
been sent to the College." 

GEORGE MORTIMER TURNER, son of Newell 
Turner, was born at Skaneateles, N. Y., July 14, 1863, 
and fitted for college in that town. After graduating 
from Amherst, he studied chemistry for two years at 
Johns Hopkins University. 

He is a successful teacher of science. He has been 
engaged in school work in Baltimore, Md., Newark, 
N. J., Auburn, N. Y., and Omaha, Neb. For several 
years he has been instructor in physics and chemistry 
in the Masten Park High School of Buffalo. 

He married, June 27, 1888, Laura Austin Lawton, 
of Skaneateles, N. Y. They have a son, Warren 
Mortimer, born March 5, 1896. 

Address: 12 Clarendon Place, Buffalo, N. Y. 

EDWARD GERRY TUTTLE, M. D., was born in 
Ware, Mass., December 9, 1862, where his father, 
William G. Tuttle (Amherst College, 1846,) was pastor 
of the Congregational Church. He attended the high 
school in Ware and later Phillips Academy, Andover, 
where he was graduated in 1881. In Amherst, he was 
a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon, vice-president of 
the class freshman year and president sophomore year, 
was one of the five speakers for the Kellogg prize fresh- 
man year, and a member of the cast of "The Rivals" 
in senior dramatics. The next year after graduation, 
he taught in the Blackball School in Lyme, Conn., 
and then entered the New York Homeopathic Medical 
College, where he graduated in 1889. 

After spending several months abroad, studying in 
Germany, Vienna, Paris and London, he returned to 
New York to take the position of first house surgeon 
in the Flower Hospital, which position he held for two 



Amherst College 



years before entering practice. After a few years of 
general practice, he specialized in and has since confined 
himself exclusively to surgery and gynecology; and after 
teaching for ten years in the New York Homeopathic 
Medical College and Flower Hospital, he was made 
professor and head of the department of gynecology in 
that institution, a position which he now holds. He 
is a member of the Broadway Tabernacle Church, and 
belongs to the following societies and clubs: New York 
State Homeopathic Society, American Institute, Acad- 
emy of Pathological Science, Meissen Club, Chiron 
Club, New York Medical Club, Unanimous Club, and 
New York Athletic Club. 

He was married on May 31, 1893, to Adelaide Under- 
wood Bates, of Pawtucket, R. I. Children: Kathleen 
Harriet Tuttle, born August 26, 1894; Edward Gerry 
Tuttle, Jr., born June 4, 1898. 

Address: 61 West 51st St., New York City. 



IRVING HAWKES UPTON was born in North 
Reading, Mass., September 22, 1862, the son of Alanson 
A. Upton, and fitted for college at Phillips Academy, 
Andover. In college he was a member of Chi Phi and 
Phi Beta Kappa, and organist of the First Church 
throughout his course. From 1886 to 1889, he was 
principal of the high school at Bradford, Mass., and 
from 1889 to 1896, was principal of the high school 
at Portsmouth, N. H. In 1896 he became junior-master 
in Roxbury High School, Boston, and in 1907 was made 
head of the department of science in that school, which 
position he still holds. 

For the past ten years he has been organist at Walnut 
Avenue Congregational Church, Roxbury. He is a 
member of various professional organizations, and in 
1909 was president of the Boston High School Masters' 



Class of Eighty-Five 89 



Club. He traveled in Europe in 1890, 1895 and 1906, 
and spends the sabbatical year 1910-11 in study and 
travel. 

He married, December 27, 1893, Miss Katherine L. 
Haven, daughter of Charles F. Haven of Sangerfield, 
N. Y., Smith '92, and they have one daughter, Elizabeth 
Haven, born December 12, 1897. 

Address: 20 Park View St., Roxbury, Mass. 

EDWARD ROSWELL UTLEY, M. D., the son of 

James, M. D., and Martha Fairfield (Dunlap) Utiey, 
was born August 18, 1862, and prepared for college 
at the Newton, (Mass.,) High School. He was a mem- 
ber at Amherst of Delta Upsilon, and of the Glee Club. 
He was also an editor of the Olio. 

After graduation, he studied medicine at the Harvard 
Medical School, Boston University Medical School, and 
Worcester City Hospital. He received the degree of 
A. M. from Amherst, and M. D. from Harvard. In 
1889-90 he was house physician and surgeon of the 
Worcester City Hospital, in 1891-93 visiting physician 
of the Newton Hospital, and 1891 to the present, phy- 
sician of the Middlesex county prison. 

He has a large private practice, has been Middlesex 
County physician since 1890, city physician of Newton 
1898-1908, associate medical examiner of the 7th Middle- 
sex District 1898 to 1905, examining surgeon of the 
Boston Suburban Electric Railway since 1900. 

He married Edith Sanger Wood October 4. 1900. 
No children. 

Address: 497 Center Street, Newton, Mass. 

EDWARD PICKETT VANDERCOOK was born in 
San Francisco, Cal., January 31, 1864, the son of F. A. 
and Emma M. Vandercook. He prepared for college 
at the high school in Evanston, 111., attending North- 



90 Amherst College 



western University at first, he later became identified 
with the class of '85 at Amherst, joining in its junior 
year, but left during the winter term on account of 
ill health. He was a member of Beta Theta Pi. 

In 1893 he married Miss Vivian Pearl Elliott of 
Oakland, Cal. In 1899 a son, Elliot Vail Vandercook, 
was born to them. In 1908 this marriage was dissolved. 
In 1909 Mr. Vandercook was married to Miss Kathryn 
Brown of Berkeley, Cal. 

Mr. Vandercook is in the investment business, com- 
prising real estate, water power, irrigation and mining 
enterprises. His business office is in San Francisco, 
and his home is across the bay in Oakland. 

Address: Nevada Bank Building, San Francisco, Cal. 

HARRY MORRISON WAITE, the son of Edwin R. 
Waite, was born on March 20, 1862, at Ravenna, Ohio, 
and previous to entering Amherst College at the open- 
ing of sophomore year, was a student in the Western 
Reserve University, Hudson, Ohio. 

In Amherst he was a member of Alpha Delta Phi, a 
favorite in a wide circle of friends, and during senior 
year was an editor of The Student. He died suddenly 
of heart disease at Ravenna, Dec. 9, 1885. 

CHARLES SWAN WALKER was born in Cincinnati, 
Ohio, October 7, 1846, son of Dr. Samuel S. Walker, a 
portrait and landscape painter, and Harriet Newell Forbes 
Walker. He prepared for college at Albion Academy, 
Orleans Co., N. Y. He was employed in a large dry 
goods store in Cincinnati, and then enlisted for the 
Civil War in the 137th Regiment, Ohio National Guard. 
After his regiment was mustered out, he studied at 
Marietta College and at Yale, being graduated from 
the latter institution in 1867. He was a member of 
Phi Beta Kappa. He graduated from the Yale Theo- 
logical seminary in 1870. 



Class of Eighty-Five 91 



He preached in Darien Conn., organized the First 
Congregational Church of Huntington, W. Va., was 
pastor of the First Congregational Church, Holyoke, 
Mass., from 1874 to 1876; acting pastor of the South 
Church in Amherst, 1876-9; pastor of the Congregational 
Church of Vineland, N. J., 1879-81; and resumed the 
South Amherst Pastorate in 1881. 

During this pastorate he took a post-graduate course 
in Amherst College in philosophy under Prof. Garman 
and in political economy with Prof. John B. Clark. He 
presented a thesis entitled. "An Examination of Her- 
bert Spencer's Evolution of Religion," and graduated in 
1885, receiving the degree of Ph. D. 

In 1886 Dr. Walker became chaplain of the Massa- 
chusetts Agricultural College and professor of political 
science in that institution, with which he remained until 
1906. He is a member of the council of the American 
Economic Association, being among the oldest mem- 
bers, and is also a member of the American Academy 
of Political and Social Science. 

Dr. Walker married September 15, 1873, Miss Alice 
M. Morehouse, the daughter of Charles G, Morehouse 
of Darien, Conn., a descendant of the Mather family 
of New England fame. Children: Claude Frederick 
Walker, Ph. D., Charles Morehouse Walker. 

Address: Amherst, Mass. 



EDWIN GAYLORD WARNER, Ph. D., the son of 
Rev. Jacob K. and Mary Piatt Warner, was born at 
Center, Wis., November 30, 1860, and fitted for college 
at the high school in Jacksonville, Fla., and at Canan- 
daigua Academy, Canandaigua, N. Y. In college he 
was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon and of Phi 
Beta Kappa. He took the Woods and Hutchins prizes 
and was a commencement speaker. 



92 Amherst College 



Since his graduation he has been teaching in the 
Polytechnic Preparatory School of Brooklyn, where he 
is the head of the Latin department. From 1890 to 
1893 he studied at the New York University, and 
obtained from it the degree of Ph. D. He has been 
interested in the church work of the South Congrega- 
tional Church, has been superintendent of the Mission 
Sunday School of this church for twenty years. — 

He is a member of the American Philological Asso- 
ciation, the National Educational Association, the 
Schoolmasters' Association, The New York Latin Club, 
The Crescent Athletic Club and the Congregational 
Club. 

He was married June 25, 1889, to Euphemia, daughter 
of Jacob Lawson. They have five children: Harold 
Lawson, born August 8, 1890; Edith Piatt, born October 
18, 1891; Marion Gray, born October 7, 1893; Douglas 
Kent, born December 16, 1894; Albert Lyman, born 
March 1, 1893. 

Harold was graduated from Amherst in the class 
of 1910. Having completed the work in three years 
and a half, he spent the last half of the fourth year 
in the Columbia Law School. 

Address: 56 Montgomery Place, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

JAMES TIMOTHY WHITING was born in Mt. 
Pleasant, Iowa, April 18, 1862, the son of J. H. and 
Julia May Whiting, and prepared for college in Williston 
Seminary, Easthampton, Mass. 

On graduation he began work in the National State 
Bank of his native place, and became, successively, 
bookkeeper, assistant cashier (1889), cashier (1892), 
and president (1907), which position he still holds. He 
is also president of the Rome Savings Bank, Rome, 
Iowa, and vice-president of the Iowa State Bank, New 
London, Iowa. 



Class of Eighty-Five 93 



Married September 18, 1899, to Miss Anna Crane 
of Mt. Pleasant, and has two children: Edith, born 
November 18, 1900; John Howard, born December 26, 
1902. 

Address: Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. 

FRANK ELLSWORTH WHITMAN was born in 
Saginaw, Mich., July 29, 1862, the son of George Bar- 
rett and Isabella (Wheaton) Whitman. He prepared 
for college in the Chicago High School. In college he 
was a member of the Chi Psi, was gymnasium captain 
during freshman, junior and senior years, a senator, 
and marshal on class-day. 

In July 1886, he became connected with the Hills 
Company at Amherst, Mass., where he remained until 
July, 1896. Since that time he has resided in New 
York and Brookline, Mass., and is now treasurer of 
Union-Buffalo Mills Co., and connected with other 
interests of Fleitmann & Co., commission merchants. 
Class secretary, 1886-1910. 

On June 17, 1891, he married Miss Mary P. Hills, 
daughter of Henry F. Hills of Amherst. Mrs. Whitman 
died February 14, 1907. 

Children: Adelaide, born September 19, 1892; Bar- 
rett, born August 18, 1896; Mary Hills, born April 18, 
1898; Frank, born and died September, 1899. 

Address: 490 Broome St., New York. 

REV. WALLACE WATSON WILLARD, the son of 
Rev. John and Catherine E. (Steele) Willard, was born 
in Fair Haven, Mass., November 5, 1862, and fitted 
for college in the Newton, (Mass.) High School. He 
entered with us and remained one term. He was a 
member of Delta Upsilon. 

In '82-83 he studied at Beloit, '83-85 at Carleton 
College, where he graduated. In 1886-8 he attended 



94 Amherst College 



the Hartford Theological Seminary, and was licensed 
to preach in 1889. In '89-92 he was pastor of Bethany- 
Congregational Church, St. Paul, Minn.; '92-5, pastor 
of Third Congregational Church, St. Louis, Mo.; 
1896, ordained pastor of First Congregational Church, 
Moline, 111., where he remained pastor for eight years; 
1906 (March) he went to the New England Church, 
Aurora 111., where he is still pastor. 

Married Miss Mary H. Ela of Rochester, Wis., 
November, 1905. One child, John Ela Willard, born 
October 31, 1908. 

Address: Aurora, 111. 

SAMUEL HUBBARD WILLIAMS, son of James B. 
and Jerusha Hubbard Williams, was born in Glaston- 
bury, Conn., September 28, 1864, and prepared for 
college at the Glastonbury Academy. During his 
college course, he was member of Chi Phi, ball player 
and in senior year, he was president of the baseball 
association. 

The first year after graduation was spent in the study 
of chemistry at the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale. 
Since 1886, he has been chemist and assistant super- 
intendent, and is now vice-president of the J. B. Wil- 
liams Company, soap manufacturers, Glastonbury, Conn. 

He has been secretary and treasurer of the board 
of school visitors, and at present is chairman of the 
town school committee. Was a member of the Con- 
necticut Legislature, session of 1901. He has been 
superintendent of Sunday school for the past twenty 
years, and president of the State Sunday School Asso- 
ciation since 1902, as well as member from Connecticut 
of the executive committee of the International Sunday 
School Association since 1905. 

He married, January 9, 1889, Miss Frances Anna 
Scudder, daughter of Rev. W. W. Scudder, D. D., at 



Class of Eighty-Five 95 



Palmaner, India. There are four children: Carol 
Scudder, born May 1, 1890; Frances Rousseau, born 
November 23, 1891; Martha Huntington, born 
October 23, 1896; James Baker, born July 11, 1900. 
Address: Glastonbury, Conn. 

WILLIAM EDWARDS WILLIAMS was born in Glas- 
tonbury, Conn., July 16, 1862, the son of William 
Stuart and Mary Goodwin Williams, and fitted for 
college at Glastonbury Academy and Hartford High 
School. At Amherst he was a member of Psi Upsilon, 
and foremost in that which was social and conducive 
to good fellowship. He left college during senior year 
on account of ill health, and died at Santa Barbara, 
Cal., March 8, 1886, mourned by a wide circle to whom 
his lovable character had endeared him. 

CHARLES FREDERIC WILSON, son of Rev. John C. 
and Martha B. (Chamberlain) Wilson, was born in 
Winterport, Maine, December 21, 1863, fitted for 
college at the high school, Hartford, Conn. Amherst 
College, '81-'82, four terms. In the service of the 
Burlington & Missouri Railroad several years. '85-; 
at Lincoln, Neb., later at Omaha, Neb., stenographer. 
Married Miss Lula Upham, December 29, 1888, in 
Omaha. One child. 

We have not been able to reach Wilson for a number 
of years by mail, and all attempts to locate him through 
Amherst graduates in Omaha and Lincoln have failed. 

REV. JOHN CHURCHWOOD WILSON, son of 

Thomas Wilson, was born in Philadelphia, May 9, 1861, 
and fitted for college at Rugby Academy and Eastburn's 
Academy in that city. He took the theological course 
in the Yale Divinity School, and became pastor of 
the First Congregational Church of Stonington, Conn., 



96 Amherst College 



where he remained from May 17, 1888, to September, 
1892. He was then called to the pastorate of the Center 
Congregational Church of Meriden. Leaving this 
charge in February, 1896, he became pastor of the 
Puritan Congregational Church of Brooklyn, N. Y., 
where he remained until 1900. 

He threw himself into the work of this field with 
very great energy, and though its fruitage was great, 
as had been the case in both of his previous pastorates, 
Mr. Wilson's health broke down under the strain, and 
he was obliged to give up work and go abroad, where 
he spent a year. 

In May, 1901, returning from his leave of absence 
in Europe with improved though not fully restored 
health, he felt unable to continue the severe labor of 
this church, and resigning, became associate pastor in 
the South Congregational Church of Brooklyn, N. Y., 
relieving Dr. Lyman, the senior pastor, of a large part 
of the pulpit and pastoral responsibility, and winning 
the appreciation and love of the people. His health 
continued to improve, and he was about to accept 
one of the many calls which he had received to an 
independent pastorate, when he met death by accident 
on July 9, 1903. 

In 1900 he was president of the alumni association 
of the Yale Divinity School, and delivered at the meet- 
ing of the association an address on "Preparation for 
Preaching," which won for him widespread recognition 
among his ministerial brethren. He was an honorary 
member of the General Strong Post of the Grand Army, 
and delivered before this post an address at Greenwood, 
on Memorial Day in 1898. After his death there was 
published a series of six lectures which he delivered 
in the South Church on "The Struggle for Religious 
Liberty." Two sentences from the foreword to this 
book, written by Dr. Lyman, well characterize him: 



Class of Eighty-Five 97 



"He possessed a spirit of unusual tone, in whose fore- 
ground dwelt a rare wealth of noble ideals and a most 
passionate love of liberty. His mental and moral traits 
were in singular unison of action, so that the pains- 
taking search and utterance of the scholar were in him 
reinforced by a certain gallant and knightly fervor, 
imparting to all his personality and work a distinction 
and a beauty whose impression cannot fade from our 
memory." 

Mrs. Wilson and one daughter. Avis Barton Wilson, 
born January 16, 1901, survive him. Mrs. Wilson's 
address is No. 30 Strong Place, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

PRESTON WILSON, M. D., was with us until the 
end of sophomore year. At that time he went to 
Philadelphia and studied at the Jefferson Medical 
College, graduating in April, 1886. After that he prac- 
ticed in Clearfield, Penn., and all attempts to communi- 
cate with him have failed. We have been informed 
that he died some years ago. 

WILLIAM DOUGLAS WINDOM, son of the late 
William Windom, Secretary of the Treasury under 
Presidents Garfield and Harrison, was born in Winona, 
Minn., April 20, 1859, and prepared for college with 
Rev. Joseph A. Leach, Keene, N. H. He was a mem- 
ber at Amherst of Psi Upsilon, and presided with con- 
spicuous success as toastmaster of '85's sophomore 
banquet in Burlington, Vt. He left college at the close 
of sophomore year, and studied architecture for two 
years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 
From 1885 to 1888 he was in Washington, and since 
1900 has been in that city, in the office of the super- 
vising architect of the Treasury Department. He 
has a summer residence at Norfolk, Conn. He has 
designed many postoffices and public buildings, and 



Amherst College 



himself likes the postoffice at Laredo, Texas, as well 
as any. In the course of his official duties "he has 
had occasion to visit every part of the country, and 
is a recognized authority on rural hotels ranging in 
price from two dollars a day down." "He has never 
been indicted. He has less hair and fewer teeth than 
in 1885, but, in compensation, his waist measure is six 
inches greater." 

He married, June 8, 1885, Miss Jane Hutcheson 
of Columbus, Ohio, and sister of Joseph Hutcheson 
of '85. Four children are living, of whom the oldest 
is a member of the class of 1911, at Williams College. 

Address: 1828 California St., Washington, D. C. 

EDWIN BURNS WOODIN, purchasing agent of a 
wholesale boot and shoe house, the Cutler & Porter 
Company, of Springfield, Mass., is a native of Foo Chow, 
China, where he was born December 9, 1861, his father, 
Rev. Simeon F. Woodin, being a missionary. 

He prepared for college at the high school in Newton, 
Mass. During his college course, Woodin was a mem- 
ber of Beta Theta Pi, of Phi Beta Kappa, and took an 
active interest in athletics. He took a post graduate 
course in chemistry at Amherst College and in assaying 
at Stevens Institute, Hoboken, N. J. He was engaged 
in teaching at Tahlequah, Indian Territory, 1885-7; 
at Mohegan Lake, N. Y., 1888-9; and was professor of 
chemistry in the Pennsylvania Military Academy, 
Chester, Pa., 1889-94. Removing to Springfield, he 
engaged in the boot and shoe business. He was a 
member of the City Council in 1897. 

He united in marriage, December 28, 1892, with Miss 
Alice L. Cutler, daughter of Laroy Z. Cutler, of Spring- 
field. He has two daughters, Dorothy L., born Decem- 
ber, 7, 1893; Ruth C, born November 8, 1897. 

Address: 36 Florentine Gardens, Springfield, Mass. 



Class of Eighty-Five 99 



GEORGE CATLIN WOODRUFF Is the son of George 
Morris and Elizabeth Parsons Woodruff, the former 
a state railroad commissioner and judge of probate. 
He was born in Litchfield, Conn., June 23, 1861, and 
fitted for college at Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass. 
He entered Yale, but afterward went to Amherst, where 
he was a member of Psi Upsilon. After graduation, 
he studied theology in the Union Seminary, New York 
City, and received the degree of A. M. from Amherst. 

He was the Congregational Sunday School and 
Publication Society's superintendent for Colorado in 
1888-9, pastor of the Congregational Church at Green 
Mountain Falls, Colorado, in 1889-91, and pastor of 
the Faith Chapel and mission of the New York Avenue 
Presbyterian Church in Washington, D. C, 1891-4. 
Since October 4, 1894, he has been proprietor of the 
Litchfield Enquirer, an old and influential newspaper 
published in his native town. He is a Mason of Blue 
Lodge and chapter degrees. He married, November 5, 
1888, Miss Lucy Este Crawford, daughter of the late 
John Crawford, of Baltimore, Md. 

Address: Litchfield, Conn. 

EDWARD MINTON WOODWARD, father of the 
class boy, who has just graduated with honors from 
Amherst, was born in Paxton, Mass., August 13, 1860, 
the son of Albert E. Woodward, and fitted for college 
at the Worcester Classical High School. He was a 
charter member of Theta Delta Chi During 1886, 
he taught in Hubbardston, Mass. Instructor in the 
Worcester Classical High School, 1886-1904, for seven- 
teen years, in physics, chemistry and mathematics, 
being assistant to the principal much of this time. Was 
unanimously elected principal of the new South High 
School in Worcester in 1904. He is a thirty-third 
degree Mason. 



100 Amherst College 



He married, August 4, 1887, Miss S. Emma Hemen- 
way, of Barre, Mass., daughter of Chauncey C. Hemen- 
way and a graduate of the State Normal School at 
Worcester. There are five children: Harold E., the 
class boy, born July 5, 1888; Ruth L., born July 14, 
1890; Geraldine M., born December 27, 1891; Ethel F., 
born July 18, 1902; Albert H., born September 8, 1904. 

Address: 736 Pleasant St., Worcester, Mass. 




d^ 



Class of Eighty-Five 101 



RECORD OF REUNIONS SINCE 1895 



The Quindecennial Reunion, Held in 1900 

It was a foregone conclusion that all of our reunions — 
in fact, all class reunions, would have to stand compari- 
son with the memorable affair of 1895. From that 
viewpoint, this reunion was quiter, as became men five 
years older; was not so well attended, as was to be 
expected; and was less novel and more dignified, as 
was inevitable. Eighty-five, however, found Amherst 
ready to welcome her royally, and left with the con- 
sciousness of having spent a few days in the old town 
delightfully and profitably. 

The same big purple and white banner and the same 
electric '85 served to show the way to the Old Gym, 
whose main floor, bedecked with bunting and furnished 
with chairs and small tables, lighted by electricity and 
supplied with piano, old Student, Olios and other memor- 
abilia, had become the headquarters for Eighty-five 
during her quindecennial week. 

For the smoker on Saturday evening, the attendance 
was proportionately large. Woodruff, who had prom- 
ised to be on hand, failed to appear, and we are still 
looking for the letter which was to explain why we were 
doomed to so great a disappointment 

On Sunday, at the usual praise service, Galloway 
sang a composition of his own, which he had dedicated 
to Eighty-five. 

By Monday, the attendance had been largely 
increased, so that the coach at the Williams-Amherst 
game was well and enthusiastically filled. It would 



102 Amherst College 



be nearer correct to say that "enthusiastically" ceased 
to apply as the game progressed, for no amount of '85 
yelling could bring the quality of baseball exhibited 
by our men up to the standard set by the young men 
from Berkshire, We had rigged up a big transparency 
showing a number of scores with Yale, Harvard, Brown 
and Princeton, which '85 in the old days had helped 
to make memorable, and we had punctuated these scores 
in each instance with the ball with which the game had 
been won. This transparency created enthusiasm, but 
it made us old fellows reminiscent. 

On Tuesday, the class enjoyed a trolley ride to North 
Amherst, and on the return trip were royally enter- 
tained by Mrs. Hopkins at her home. 

At headquarters, at nine o'clock, came the class 
supper, partaken of by the entire number at the reunion, 
twenty-four, as follows: 



Abbott 


Harris 


Richards 


Turner 


Barrows 


Hawks 


Simons 


Upton 


Butler 


Hopkins 


SOULE 


Whitman 


FiSKE 


Kimball 


Stevens 


Williams 


Galloway 


Lancaster 


Stone 


WOODIN 


Greene 


Palmer 


Tower 


Woodward 



Galloway presided, and Davis and his colored assist- 
ants rendered selections more or less ambitious — the 
less, the more we like them. We all missed Utley, 
who, with Stant Gleason and E. A. Tucker, had to act 
the "stork" that night and so miss the dinner. W^e 
had no college Senate question to discuss this time, 
and so we devoted ourselves to ourselves with a ven- 
geance. And this is the way it was done: The sec- 
retary called the roll and each absentee's name was 
responded to, either by his own letter or telegram or 
by one or more of those present who could enlighten 
the rest of us on the whereabouts and other particulars 
of the absent one. In this way we heard from every 
man, and altogether spent a delightful evening. 



Class of Eighty-Five 103 



Up to the last we had expected Cutler, Thayer, and 
others of the teaching force whose school duties made 
earlier attendance impossible; but after all, they were 
unable to come. 

The old officers were re-elected, and Upton was added 
to the reunion committee. 

Early on the following day the men began to separate, 
and the Eighty-five badge gradually disappeared from 
the campus. 

At the alumni dinner Galloway was the speaker from 
our class. 

All of the papers reporting the exercises of commence- 
ment week referred to '85 in most complimentary terms, 
the Amherst Record in particular welcoming us back 
to Amherst with great cordiality. 



The Twentieth Reunion, Held in 1905 

The Twentieth reunion was a tremendous success. 
Every man present testified to its value in renewing 
old associations, in deepening affections and increasing 
loyalty to the college. The secretary's report, which 
follows, will serve as the record. 

SECRETARY'S REPORT 

On the veranda at headquarters Sunday night, there 
was a large gathering of the class. It developed into 
a sort of "committee of the whole" with Ames as chair- 
man. The results were: 

First, the decision to raise by subscription enough to 
meet all reunion expenses not already provided for, to 
pay off the deficit carried from 1900 and to leave, if 
possible, a balance enabling the editor of the Class 
Book to begin work. 



104 Amherst College 



Second, the appointment of Palmer, Ames and Greene 
as a committee on nominations to report at the class 
dinner. At the dinner, this committee reported, recom- 
mending the following: 

For President, Wm. G. Thayer. 

For Vice-President, E. Parmalee Prentice. 

For Secretary, F. E. Whitman. 

For book committee, which shall have power to add 
to its membership and shall also have charge of the 
reunion of 1910: 

Those named by the committee as above were unani- 
mously elected. On motion of George Gardner, Presi- 
dent Thayer appointed Gardner, Prentice and Evans 
as "a committee to secure a class fund, the income 
of which is to be used in educating children of deceased 
members when help is needed, or to provide other means 
for the same purpose." 

The long-distance cup was awarded to Palmer. 

Sir Chentung Liang Cheng, the recent Chinese Minis- 
ter to this country, studied in Amherst under tutors, 
and later attended Phillips, Andover, with the class 
of '81, intending to enter our class on completing his 
preparatory course there. He was, however, recalled 
by his government. Given the degree of LL. D. by 
Amherst in 1903, making Amherst his summer home, 
known to many of our class, he signified his willingness 
to become an honorary member of '85, and at the 
dinner he was unanimously elected. 

Immediately after the ladies' luncheon on Tuesday, 
he was enthusiastically welcomed into the class by all of 
the '85 people. He attended the alumni dinner with 
us, marching in with '85 and speaking for the class. 

As to finances, the secretary has filed his report with 
the class president, and will simply say here that there 
was received from subscriptions, dinner taxes, board, 
etc., ^639.50; and there has been expended, $625.12; 



Class of Eighty-Five 



105 



leaving 314.38, which was turned over to Stone to apply 
on the costs of the book. All bills have been paid, 
including the deficit from 1900. 

After attempting to secure the necessary data to 
enable them to issue a satisfactory book, the committee 
concluded that the idea was impracticable at that time, 
the surplus above mentioned having been expended in 
circulars and postage. 

On Sunday afternoon, in the small chapel, we held a 
memorial service under the guidance of Soule. Members 
had been assigned to speak regarding each classmate 
who had died since the last reunion, and Low sang 
"Crossing the Bar." 

We were favored by the attendance of a number of ladies 

from the homes of '85, as well as the class boy, who is in the 

centreof the reunion group. The following is the roster: 

Sherman 
Stevens 
Smith, E. H. 
Smith, C. H. 
Stone 
Soule 

TOWEK, 

Mrs. Tower 
Tuttle, 

Mrs. Tuttle 

Tu'HNER 

Tuck 

Mrs. Tuck 
Thayer, 

Mrs. Thayer 
Upton, 

Mrs. Upton 
Utley 
Walker, 

Mrs. Walker 
Warner, 

Mrs. Warner 
Williams. 

Mrs. Williams 
Whitman, 

Mrs. Whitman 

WOODIN 

Woodward, 

Mrs. Woodward, 
The Classboy 



Ames 

Brooks 

Cutler 

Dean 

Dewey 

Evans, 

Miss Evans 
Fiske 
Gardner 
Greene, 

Mrs. Greene 
Galloway 
Harris 
Hopkins, 

Mrs. Hopkins 
Kimball, 

Mrs. Kimball 

Bourne, Miss 
Lancaster 
Low, 

Mrs. Low 
Lamb 
Liang, 

Miss May Liano 
Mank 
Morris 
Palmer 
Prentice 
Richards 
Mrs. Richard 



106 Amherst College 



It is a pleasure to include in this report the thanks 
of the class to Mrs. Hopkins, Mrs. Hunt and Miss Hunt 
for their willing help in many ways, and to the genial 
"Frank" Wood for his successful efforts to make his 
house pleasant headquarters fofthe class. 



The Twenty-fifth Reunion 

Hail, Alma Mater, old Amherst the true, 

Queen on thy living throne. 
Thine be our homage to wise empire due, 

Thine be our hearts alone. 
Great in the past, standest thou fast; 
Thou art worthy, reign, be strong unto the last. 
Hail, Hail, Alma Mater, old Amherst the true. 

Our hearts are thine alone." 

Bedecked with all the old banners and emblazoned 
with the familiar electric lighted '85, the Prospect 
House at the corner of Amity and North Prospect 
Streets became our very own on the afternoon of Satur- 
day, June 25, 1910, and from that time until after the 
alumni dinner on the twenty-ninth, we held undisputed 
sway. Even the hen and her brood in the front door- 
yard felt perfectly at home. And well we might, with 
the families of so many of us present. The following is 
the roster. 

The Roster 

Austin Elliott, 

Barrows, Miss Dorothy A. Elliott 

Mrs. Barrows Evans 

Butler Fiske 

Breck Greene 

Cobb, Hall, 

Mrs. Cobb, Mrs. Hall 

Samuel H. Cobb, Harris 

Edward S. Cobb Hopkins, 
Corttis Mrs. Hopkins, 

Cutler Miss Cornelia Hopkins 

Dean 



Class of Eighty-Five 



107 



Johnson. 

Mrs. Johnson 

Kimball, 

Mrs. Kimball, 
Miss Caryl Eaton, 
Mr. Richard Kimball, 
Miss Elizabeth Kimball, 
Miss Emily Kimball 

Lancaster 

Low 

Nichols 

Palmer 

Lamb 

Prentice 

Richards, 

Mrs. Richards 

Sherman 

SiMONDS 

C. H. Smith 
E. H. Smith 
Soule, 

Mrs. Soule 

Theodate Haines Soule 

George Soule 

Lawrence Litchfield Soule 
Stevens, 

Mrs. Stevens 
Stone, 

Mrs. Stone 
Thayer 
Tower, 

Mrs. Tower 
Tuttle, 

Miss Kathleen H. Tuttle 

Edward Gerry Tuttle, Jr. 



Turner, 

Mrs. Turner. 

Master Warren M. Turner 
Upton, 

Mrs. Upton 
Utley 
Warner, 

Mrs. Warner, 

Miss Edith P. Warner, 

Miss Marion G. Warner 

Mr. Douglas K. Warner 

Mr. Harold L. Warner, '10 
Whitman, 

Miss Whitman, 

Miss Adelaide Whitman, 

Miss Mary Whitman, 

Barrett Whitman 
Williams, 

Mrs. Williams, 

Miss Carol S. Williams, 

Miss Frances R. Williams 
Woodin, 

Mrs. Woodin, 

Miss Dorothy L. Woodin 

Miss Dorothy L. Woodin, 

Miss Ruth C. Woodin 
Woodward, 

Mrs. Woodward, 

The Classboy, Harold E. 
Woodward, 1910 
Walker, 

Mrs. Walker 
Woodruff 

44 members; total of 90 
persons. 



We hoped to win the trophy, but we did not. And 
while a "postmortem" is useless, the committee rather 
wants to explain "the faith that was in them." We 
had 44 present; 54 would have won the cup. Nine 
who said "yes" on the postal card canvass did not 
arrive. With them present, we should have needed 
only 07ie more, and with Ames trying his utmost to 
come, with Ely in the State and with Jones, Tirrell, 
A. W. Brooks, D. Baldwin and Fessenden nearby, we 
felt reasonably sure that one of them, at least, could 
be successfully urged by 'phone or telegram to join us. 



108 Amherst College 



On Saturday evening, with an already large attend- 
ance, we had an informal gathering at headquarters. 
On Sunday with more present, we held the memorial 
service in the parlors. Richards conducted this service, 
and as the name of each of our twenty-two deceased 
members was called, one or more spoke in commemo- 
ration of his life and work. 

Just before this service, Ralph Johnson, of the gradu- 
ating class, called and received a gift of ^500, made 
by Mrs. E. A. Tucker to commemorate the 25th anni- 
versary of her husband's graduation and to carry out 
one of Dr. Tucker's wishes, that of helping some prom- 
ising student to pursue his studies unhampered by the 
need of individual work to provide funds. Johnson 
was selected by Professors Tyler and Olds. He was 
one of the highest standing men in his class, a hard 
working, self supporting, and most attractive fellow 
with special aptitude in mathematics. Aided by this 
gift, he is taking post-graduate work at Harvard under 
Byerly, Coolidge, and others, and recent reports show 
that he is making his mark there. By a hearty vote, 
the thanks of the class were extended to Mrs. Tucker 
for this graceful recognition of our reunion. Immedi- 
ately after the memorial service, the class held a formal 
meeting. 

Prentice presented a resolution that the class should 
memorialize the trustees of Amherst College, on the 
matter of raising the standards of scholarship. The 
subject was thoroughly discussed and the question 
submitted to the schoolmasters of the class. Eight of 
them met in conference, and reported through Thayer 
at the dinner. It was then voted to leave the matter 
with a committee of three, with power to draw up new 
resolutions, expressing the opinion of the class, as in 
favor of the substance of the original resolutions. The 
committee, consisting of Prentice, Lancaster and 




H ? 



CO S 



2^ 



> y 



Class of Eighty-Five 109 



Thayer, proceeded to prepare the memorial to the 
trustees, 

Financial matters were discussed and steps taken to 
raise the balance needed. How well this was done, 
appears in the financial report appended. 

Following this discussion, Thayer, in the name of 
the class, presented to the secretary a very handsome 
silver plate, bearing this inscription : 

Amherst College, 1885-1910 

to 

Frank Ellsworth Whitman 

from grateful classmates 

in recognition of his untiring devotion and his unstinted service. 

to the Class of Eighty-five 

Whitman wishes the opportunity to record in this 
book a personal note of appreciation of this gift. (See 
Page 7.) 

A Historic Monday 

"The day we played base ball." The game was 
really remarkable, even if we do not consider the age 
and professional and commercial attainments of the 
players. It was the most decisive of all our reunion 
victories as the subjoined score attests: 

THE AMHERST STUDENT'S STORY OF THE 

GAME 

Eighty-Five Wins 
Eighty-five easily defeated their ten-year juniors 7-0 in a sen- 
sational game yesterday morning on Pratt field, thereby proving 
for a second time the superiority of age and seniority. The first 
time was five years ago, when the adults scored 10-6 over the minors- 
In each case, the invincibility of Harris was the stepping stone to 
victory. 

A BASE STANDING 

In yesterday's game most of the playing was done from the 
bleachers. In the first inning, a Johnnie Johnson volunteer "b- 



110 Amherst College 



stitute base-runner of uncertain but stupendous avoirdupois, 
created a sensation by sliding to second, amid the blatant roar 
of trumpets, flutter of parasols and cheers of admiring femininity. 
The scoring began in the second act, when three men came home. 
Errors by the '95 back stop were responsible for the runs. A 
readjustment of the youngsters kept their rivals from scoring until 
the fifth, when the gods smiled on the fathers for four runs. 
Score by innings: 

1 2 3 4 S 
'85, 3 4—7 

Batteries — Harris and Sherman, Nichols, Colby, Pratt and 
Deering. Umpire — McClure, '10. 

FROM THE NEW YORK SUN 

After the concert it was necessary to hurry down to Pratt Field 
to see the baseball sharps of '85 give '95 a little instruction in the 
national game. Every Amherst man and a good many old timers 
of other colleges knew what bear cats the '85s were at baseball. 
They turned out a team that year that licked Yale, Harvard, 
Princeton, Brown and Williams, and when the men of '85 come 
back every year they just naturally scurry for the ball yard and 
cry for victims. Ninety-five had a team ready today, but it stood 
no more chance with the old champions than would a team made 
up of the graduates of '44. Eighty-five won, 7 to 0, with their 
ears laid back. 



Our team was made up as follows: 



p- 


Harris 


c. 


Sherman, who caught 


Istb. 


Lancaster 


2d b. 


Williams 


3db. 


E. H. Smith 


s. s. 


Breck 


1. f. 


Hopkins 


c. f. 


Woodin 


r. f. 


Elliott 



ran for Harris, Johnson who slid 

So many wanted to see the Amherst-Wesleyan game 
in the afternoon that the proposed trolley ride was 
omitted. 

At about six in the evening, we proceeded by special 
trolley to Sunderland and thence by barges to South 



Class of Eighty-Five \\\ 



Deerfield, where we held our class banquet at the 
Warren House. A simple "feed," and a feast of reason 
and nonsense presided over by Soule in his inimitable 
way, made up an evening long to be remembered. 
Every man present said something and serious discourse 
was forbidden. Under the leadership of Alf Hall, there 
was a lot of singing. 

The "long distance cup" committee had difficulty 
in deciding between Austin and Elliott, but finally 
awarded the cup to the former, who responded in a 
very graceful speech, the excellence of which we will 
let you determine for yourselves. 

The committee on nominations, consisting of Austin, 
Lancaster and Evans, who were appointed at the 
Sunday evening class meeting, reported the following 
nominations: 

President, Thayer. 

Vice-President, Prentice. 

Secretary, Whitman. 

Reunion Committee — Upton, chairman. 

Utley, Soule, Hopkins 

and thereupon, these men were duly elected. At the 
close of the affair, "Auld Lang Syne" was sung by the 
entire thirty-eight present and we returned to head- 
quarters before midnight. 

An attractive "greeting to the absent members," 
suggested by Stone and supplied through his generosity, 
was signed by each one presented and forwarded to 
the absent ones by the secretary. 

Tuesday was given up to reminiscences and general 
enjoyment of the beauties of the country and the college 
exercises, some luncheons at fraternity house, the taking 
of some excellent reunion group photographs and in 
the evening to the unique and charming lawn-fete, or 
"senior night," as the latest commencement is feature 
properly called. Wednesday had the usual exercises, 



112 Amherst College 



culminating in the alumni dinner, at which Evans 
presented to the College on behalf of Eighty-five, 
John W. Alexander's portrait of Professor Garman. 
The inception and consummation of this undertaking 
are recorded elsewhere in this book. 

The dinner closed the exercises of the week and soon 
our headquarters were deserted. It had been a "glo- 
rious reunion," or as another classmate has written: 
"One of our reunions is worth a year at college. Such 
affection and good will as the boys all feel for each 
other! They can't be bought with money, and they 
are worth going to college for, even if nothing else 
came of it. Would that we had not to wait five years 
for another." 



"Oh, Amherst, brave Amherst, 

'Twas a name known to fame in days of yore. 

May it ever be glorious 

'Till the sun shall climb the heavens no more." 



THE '85 ADDRESS 

TOGETHER WITH SOME 

NEWSPAPER AND MAGAZINE ARTICLES 

DISCUSSING 

THE AMHERST IDEA 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 



Address of Class of '85 3 

A Noteworthy Project in Higher Education ... 27 

By Theodore Roosevelt, the Outlook, February i8, 1911. 

The Opportunity of the Small College -iy^ 

New York Evening Post, February 25, 191 1, copied in the 
Nation, March 2, 191 1. 

An Intensive College 36 

The New York Times, May 7» I9J^I> copied in Springfield 
Repttblican, May lo, 191 1. 

The Regeneration of the Small College 38 

By Harry A. Gushing, New York Itidepejident, April 13, 1911. 

A New Alumni Movement 43 

Yale Alumni Weekly, January 13, 1911. 

The Amherst Proposals 45 

Brown Alumni Monthly , January, 191 1. 

Favor Small Colleges 47 

The Journal, Wilmington, Delaware, December 3, 1910. 

The Suggestions of '85 48 

The Hartford Courant, February 20, 191 1. 

The Amherst Plan 50 

Indianapolis News, January 21, 191 1. 

An Educational Opportunity 57 

Springfield Republican, February 21, 191 1. 



PAGE 

Amherst's Opportunity 60 

By Benjamin Baker, Boston Evening Transcript, December 31, 1910. 

The Small College 70 

San Francisco Chronicle, April 9, 191 1. 

The Future of the Smaller Colleges 73 

New York Sun, February 19, 191 1. 

Amherst a Classical College 74 

New York World, February 12, 191 1. 

The Amherst Idea 75 

Silvce, February, 191 1. 

The Classical Weekly yy 

Editorial article by Gonzalez Lodge, February 18, 191 1. 

A New Plan for Amherst 79 

Editorial article, Harper's Weekly, May 20, 191 1. 

The New Opportunity of the Small College . . . 8o 

Harper's Magazine, June, 191 1. 



ADDRESS 

TO THE 

TRUSTEES OF AMHERST COLLEGE 

BY THE 

CLASS OF 1885 



The Class of 1885, at its Twenty-fifth Reunion in 
Amherst last June, impressed by the progress of the 
College, and profoundly convinced of the value of 
those ideals which Amherst has ever set before its 
students, appointed a committee to present to the 
Trustees the question whether, at a time when educa- 
tion is so largely assuming a technical character, and 
when in the universities the work of teaching is to so 
considerable an extent performed without relations of 
personal contact and influence between teacher and 
student, it is not at once the opportunity and the duty 
of Amherst College to take a distinctive public posi- 
tion as a representative of that individual training and 
general culture which once was the purpose of all 
American colleges. We believe that the College 
should take this position, as a duty owing to its stu- 
dents, as an opportunity for a great public service, and 
in its own interest as a matter of self-preservation. 

Twenty-five years ago Amherst had a definite and 
necessary position in the educational scheme. The 
courses ofiFered to its students were not diflferent in 
character from those of other institutions of higher 
learning, while even in numbers colleges like Yale and 

3 



Princeton were not beyond comparison with Amherst. 
Columbia, Cornell, and the host of Western institu- 
tions had no such position as they occupy at present. 

Within recent years the character of education has 
so changed that the relative position of different insti- 
tutions, and the value of each in the new scheme of 
education, have undergone a reappraisal. The great 
State universities, now so important, take their stu- 
dents as they pass from the high schools, offering a 
technical training as a preparation for some profes- 
sional or commercial career, and so great is their sup- 
port in men and money that one who has thoroughly 
studied the situation recently expressed the judgment 
that "the scepter has passed from the private school 
and is threatened in the privately endowed college." 

Hence have come the enormous demands which 
Eastern universities without State support have made 
upon friends and alumni. New technical schools and 
professional and postgraduate courses have been 
needed, and for these purposes endowments have been 
given in tens of millions, so that Yale, Harvard, 
Columbia, and many other institutions are able to 
perform the work which State universities perform, 
taking students from high schools, and graduating 
them equipped to pursue a technical occupation. 

This scheme leaves no place for such a college as 
Amherst. The high school fits for the university, andj 
the university for the selected calling. Amherst, onl 
the other hand, demands a preparation not within thej 
tendencies of the high school, and gives a course of j 
training which does not fit for, but, on the other hand,! 
postpones, preparation for a calling. 

What, then, is to be the future of Amherst? It is| 
without the means necessary to enable it to take suchj 

4 



a place as that now filled by those institutions which 
were so long its competitors. Amherst cannot com- 
pete with the great universities in their extended fields, 
and so long, therefore, as we seem to occupy no sepa- 
rate and distinctive field, we must expect to see the 
numbers, reputation, prestige, and wealth of other 
institutions grow while Amherst becomes relatively 
of less and less importance. This is the prospect 
which we most unwillingly are compelled to face. 
Few there are indeed who nowadays go to a small col- 
lege because convinced that the training is superior to 
the university courses elsewhere offered. Under these 
conditions to raise our standard seems impossible; 
must we therefore be content to abandon our claim to 
an honorable place in the first rank of American insti- 
tutions? Is there no distinctive field which Amherst 
may occupy, no demand for an improvement in the 
quality of instruction which Amherst may supply ? 

We believe that there is such a field ; that there are 
public services which Amherst may render ; that there 
are already signs of reaction from present conditions, 
and that no institution can better lead and give form 
to this reaction than Amherst College. 

The popular appraisal of education is commercial,— 
measuring the value of a training by the income it re- 
turns,— and if every man stand for himself alone, 
this appraisal may be right. It is in the relation of the 
individual to the community, however, that this view 
of educational training first breaks down. Amherst 
has never taught that every man stands for himself 
alone, nor that the value of education is in its pur- 
chasable gratifications. There is a training which 
should be undergone for the sake of learning and for 
the benefit of the State. 



"There are in this country," said Professor 
Nelson of Williams College, "no two wants more 
pressing than a literature of the first rank and 
statesmen of the first rank. The two go together. 
Your great statesmen are bred on literature 
and the historic achievements of mankind. . . . 
Those alone have the right to deal with the des- 
tinies of humanity who have learned the laws by 
which humanity has come to its present heritage." 

No literature, said De Tocqueville, ought to be 
more studied in democratic ages than that of the an- 
cients. This, classical training, modified from time 
to time by demands of modern scholarship, has always 
been the Amherst course, and the Class of 1885 urge 
that the College can and should make its work in this 
field of distinctive value and public importance; that 
this can be done by raising the standard of work 
among faculty and students— by getting together at 
Amherst the best teachers in the country in our chosen 
field of work and the most serious and able young men 
to profit by this course of teaching. These three 
things are the College — the course of instruction, the 
men who give the course, and the students who 
receive it. 

THE VALUE OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION 

Amherst has stood for a liberal or classical education, 
— the old-fashioned course, — and for many years 
there was in this respect no difference between 
Amherst and other institutions of higher education in 
this country. The value to the public of this training 
in making statesmen and leaders of public thought is 

6 



even now unquestioned. It is a training in civics, in 
the history of government, in the development and 
significance of institutions, in the meaning of civiHza- 
tion,— in brief, a training for pubHc leadership, not a 
personal equipment for a trade. 

"The American college," Dr. Woodrow Wilson 
said, "has played a unique part in American 
life. ... It formed men who brought to their 
tasks an incomparable morale, a capacity that 
seemed more than individual, a power touched 
with large ideals. The college has been the seat 
of ideals. The liberal training which it sought to 
impart took no thought of any particular profes- 
sion or business, but was meant to reflect in its 
few and simple disciplines the image of life and 
thought. Men were bred by it to no skill or craft 
or calling; the discipline to which they were sub- 
jected had a more general object. It was meant 
to prepare them for the whole of life rather than 
some particular part of it. The ideals which lay 
at its heart were the general ideals of conduct, 
of right living and right thinking, which made 
them aware of a world moralized by principle, 
steadied and cleared of many an evil thing by 
true and catholic reflection and just feeling, a 
world not of interests but of ideas. Such impres- 
sions, such challenges to a man's spirit, such inti- 
mations of privilege and duty, are not to be found 
in the work of professional and technical schools. 
They cannot be." 

Very few colleges follow this line now,— unfortu- 
nately few, for the old ideas were not all wrong,— but 

7 



among the few that can find no substitute in technical 
training for the ideals of the past Amherst has an 
honorable place. This is the opportunity of the Col- 
lege, to make it its work to give that sound training 
which fits men to become public leaders. Institutions 
and government have a history, and the best states- 
manship is that which meets the future with lessons 
derived from a profound understanding of what has 
gone before us. Technical education, which, so far as 
government is concerned, for the most part teaches 
devices but not principles, which seems to assert that 
successful business fits for successful statesmanship, 
proceeds upon the assumption that retrospect is not 
wise and that in any difficulty we should consider not 
how we got there but how we can get out, as if, said 
Edmund Burke, we should "consult our invention and 
reject our experience." Here, indeed, is to be found 
one of the causes of the increasing excitabiUty of 
American politics. Invention is the parent of Utopias, 
socialism, radicalism of all kinds. Experience is the 
parent of improvement, progress, conservatism. 

It is perhaps unnecessary for the Committee to say 
that in any teaching of the experience of the race the 
sciences have a necessary place. None would advo- 
cate adoption of the unchanged classical course of 
fifty years ago. All would agree that some knowledge 
of science is part of a liberal education, and should be 
taught at Amherst — at least so far as to enable her 
graduates to enter the best professional schools. Not- 
withstanding all this, however, the day of the classics 
has not yet gone by. Mr. Charles Francis Adams, a 
quarter of a century ago a leader in the attack upon 
the old scheme of education, himself recently said that 
as an essential part of a college course 

S 



I 



i 



"I would prescribe one of the classic tongues, 
Greek or Latin, as a compulsory study to the day 
of graduation, the one royal road to a knowledge 
of all that is finest in letters and in art." 

Upon the specific question which Mr. Adams pre- 
sents, or even upon the broad question what at the 
present time should be the general character of classi- 
cal training, the Committee make no suggestions. The 
point which it is now sought to emphasize is that there 
is a great field which Amherst may occupy, that this 
field is nothing less than training in public leadership 
and broad culture. In this instruction, if Amherst make 
its position publicly distinctive and different from that 
occupied by the great universities, she need fear no 
competition. 

The tendency of modern institutions— if we disre- 
gard their distractions— is to make breadwinners, to 
fit men to earn money. State universities are neces- 
sarily of this character, and the influence upon all in- 
stitutions which compete with them is strong. Size 
itself almost irresistibly drives this way. Back of this 
modern movement is the notion recently stated by 
Professor John M. Gillette, an apostle of vocational 
training, — his very language marked by the modern 
divorce from classical scholarship,— that 

''The assumption of State education is that its 
training is necessary for citizenship, that is, to be 
a valid member of society. But since one can be 
such only as he is able to function in society, that 
is, work in society, according to its fundamental 
nature, and since society is essentially specialized 
and vocational in constitution, it follows that to 

9 



make citizens in the best sense is to vocationalize 
them, make them able to further some dominant 
social interest." ^ 

With Professor Gillette's conception of citizenship 
in the best sense we need not quarrel. None doubt, 
and at the present time none need emphasize the fact, 
that the world needs, and must have, engineers, chem- 
ists, electricians, biologists; that technical education 
and trade education are essential to the work of the 
world; that the vast development of schools and uni- 
versities in technical lines has been in response to 
urgent public necessity. For all this we have no un- 
favorable criticism. The point to be emphasized is 
that different institutions may well turn their attention 
in different directions. 

The proposition for which Amherst stands is that 
preparation for some particular part of life does not 
make better citizens than, in President Wilson's 
phrase, preparation for the whole of it ; that because a 
man can "function in society" as a craftsman in some 
trade or technical work he is not thereby made a better 
leader ; that we have already too much of that states- 
manship marked by ability "to further some dominant 
social interest" and too little of that which is "aware 
of a world moralized by principle, steadied and 
cleared of many an evil thing by true and catholic 
reflection and just feeling, a world not of interests but 
of ideas." Amherst upholds the proposition that for 
statesmen, leaders of public thought, for literature, 
indeed for all work which demands culture and 
breadth of view, nothing can take the place of the 
classical education; that the duty of institutions of 

1 " Vocational Education," p. 73. 
10 



higher education is not wholly performed when the 
youth of the country are passed from the high schools 
to the universities to be "vocationalized," but that 
there is a most important work to be performed by an 
institution which stands outside this straight line to 
pecuniary reward ; that there is room for at least one 
great classical college, and we believe for many such. 
This is the training which Amherst has given, and if 
now the College were publicly and definitely to stand 
forward as an exponent of classical learning in such 
modified course as modern scholarship may approve, 
we believe that, with its history, its deserved reputa- 
tion, and its present position, it can take the place of 
leadership in this work. This once done, the College 
will no longer appeal for support solely to its friends, 
but would have reason to expect the efficient support 
of all friends of classical education— that is, of the 
most conservative, thoughtful, and scholarly persons. 
Among such persons the desire for sound classical 
training is frequently expressed. It was but recently 
that Professor Trent of Columbia said: 

"Perhaps in time certain colleges will be able 
to emphasize to a greater degree the tried clas- 
sical discipline and to cease to compete with the 
technical schools. There is room in this huge 
country for institutions of every kind, and there 
are still people who would gladly give their chil- 
dren an old-fashioned education, that is, a dis- 
cipline that has been tested, under teachers 
convinced of its merits, and not hampered by the 
necessity of defending it against colleagues who 
do not believe in it." ^ 

iNew York Evening Post, Saturday, October 8, 1910. 
II 



That Amherst should abolish its present course lead- 
ing to the degree of B.S. will probably not be seriously 
questioned. This was once, and perhaps not long 
since, a valuable course, but at the present time, in 
view of the courses of instruction given at such schools 
as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Shef- 
field Scientific School, Cornell, and many others, it 
seems to the Committee that young men who desire 
scientific instruction make a mistake to come to Am- 
herst. That the degree should represent something 
less than a thorough scientific course of some char- 
acter, or be used to permit graduation of those who, 
for one reason or another, do not fulfil the require- 
ments of the arts degree, probably few would justify. 
Williams College refuses to grant this degree, and we 
believe that Amherst should do the same. It is to be 
supposed that this would reduce the number of stu- 
dents very considerably, but the Committee urge that 
the change is one which is due to the College itself as 
well as to its students. 

On the other hand, the classical field we believe be- 
longs to Amherst. This is the work in which the 
College may be made a leader. Of course such a posi- 
tion cannot be taken at once. Time is necessary, and 
it is necessary that in time the College so regulate its 
affairs that it shall be enabled to give the training in 
its chosen field better than any other institution. The 
method by which all this may be accomplished the 
Committee believes is involved in changes which 
should be inaugurated as parts of a single well- 
matured policy. 

First: Our faculty must be composed of the best 
teachers in the country for our chosen course. 

Second : The body of students and the purpose and 

12 



life of the College must be directed toward excellence 
in scholarship. 



THE COMPENSATION OF THE FACULTY 

It is the belief of the Class of 1885 that the profession 
of teaching is of vital public importance and dignity, 
and that the compensation offered to teachers should 
be such as to draw into the profession men of the 
highest talents and effectiveness. That this is not so 
is common knowledge. It is well known, as the New 
York Times states/ that 

"The best brains of the country are going into 
business because in business the scale [of com- 
pensation] is pitched higher." 

We have in Amherst, as there are elsewhere, men 
who dignify the service of learning. There is no small 
consolation in the fact that there are such men and in 
the knowledge that, although the profession of teach- 
ing is not now drawing into its ranks its due propor- 
tion of talent, nevertheless, in order to remedy the 
existing evil, it is not necessary that teaching be made 
a conspicuously lucrative profession. What is needed 
is, in the first place, that the compensation be not con- 
spicuously low. Young men of ability must not be 
driven to other work by the knowledge that a profes- 
sor's salary is insufficient to support a family and to 
enable him to associate with equals on equal terms. 
In the second place, it is necessary that the position of 
a professor in a prominent college be made to compare 

^ September 20, 1910. 
13 



% 



in dignity with the position achieved by success in 
other professions or occupations. 

No such condition now exists. The present fact is, 
as the New York Times recently said/ that 

"Many college instructors and some college 
professors would consider themselves lucky if 
they got the wages of a union bricklayer. They 
cannot marry and support their wives properly. 
Unless their wives have money, they cannot bring 
up their families." 

The great injustice of this condition and its serious 
consequences to the national life need no demonstra- 
tion. The evil is fundamental. It discloses present 
social standards— in no other great nation, said Pro- 
fessor Gillette, do educators stand so low in public 
esteem^— and holds out an unencouraging prospect as 
to the intellectual life of the country twenty-five years 
from now. What is needed, then, for this funda- 
mental evil is fundamental change. An increase of a 
few hundred dollars a year in the salaries of teachers 
may slightly diminish the hardships of a position 
which is too often humiliating, but it does nothing 
toward righting a great wrong. What is needed is 
not a slight increase but a radically new standard of 
compensation. We believe that it is possible for Am- 
herst to do something toward remedying this national 
misfortune and injustice. 

The College needs no more buildings and no addi- 
tional land. Its primary need is a body of instructors 
of acknowledged excellence. While it is possible for 

1 September 20, 1910. 

2 " Vocational Education," p. 37. 

14 



other institutions to call professors from Amherst, we 
cannot expect, as a general rule, either to secure or to 
keep the best. To learn the facts about salaries paid 
at Amherst, the Committee requested information 
from members of the Faculty, thirty-nine of whom 
made reports, with the following results : 

14 of these members of the Faculty receive $3000; 
4 receive $2500; i receives $2200; 11 receive $2000; 
4 receive $1600; 2 receive $1400; i receives $1300; 
2 receive $I2cxd. 

The Dean (one of the 14 to receive $3000) receives 
$1000 additional for his services in administration. 
The cases of assistants are not included in the above 
list, as they are in no sense permanent members of 
the Faculty. 

Corresponding to each of the above classes, the 
average reported expenditure per year is as follows : 

Books, -p , 

Salary Rent ^ost of education of ^^ exp^endit^re Average of 

living chiWren, over salai^ last column 

$3000 $596 $2633 $807 $4036 $1036 $620 

2500 533 2000 416 2949 449 

^2200 500 1 100 300 1900 — 300 

2000 355 1474 476 2305 305 



1600 


337 


1323 


638 


2298 


698 


1400 


333 


1335 


405 


2073 


673 


1300 


175 


500 


350 


1025 


—275 


1200 


290 


1025 


362 


1677 


477 



The higher salaries are, in general, paid to men of 
long service, who, in the natural course of affairs, are 
compelled to meet higher expenditures. Professors 

1 The regular salary of this teacher is $1600. He has an extra allowance of 
$600 this year for special work. 

IS 



are more and more, as time passes, called upon to per- 
form representative duties for the college; their chil- 
dren are growing, who must be educated, clothed, and 
fed; standards of living are entailed which are not 
necessary in the earlier period of the teacher's career. 
Higher salaries correspond not to a greater temptation 
to, but a greater need for, the increased expenditure 
which appears in the table. With this in mind, the 
significant fact shown is that at no period during a 
teacher's connection with the College is his salary 
sufficient for his support. 

If the $300 surplus noted against the $2200 salary 
be considered in the light of the foot-note, it should 
enter into the final average as +300. With this change, 
it appears that the average outlay of the Amherst 
teacher exceeds his salary by $635. The statistics 
from which this conclusion is established are based 
upon reports made in writing by the individual teach- 
ers upon a uniform blank. A careful reading of the 
remarks accompanying these reports shows that in 
many cases the expenditure is kept down to the point 
indicated only by an exercise of economy to the point 
of hardship. 

Almost without exception, the members of the Am- 
herst Faculty can live with a fair degree of comfort 
only as they derive income from sources other thaa 
salary. 

During the last ten years the increase in the cost of 
living at Amherst, taking the average of the estimates 
given by members of the Faculty, amounts to almost 
exactly 30%. 

An independent investigation to throw light upofl 
this increase has been conducted by means of data 
obtained from the books of Amherst tradesmen. Pres- 

16 



ent-day prices of the following articles were compared 
with prices prevailing in the later nineties : groceries, 
meats, clothing, coal, services, including those of do- 
mestics, mechanics, day-laborers, etc. The results of 
this investigation (which the Committee has on file) 
appear to show a distinctly greater increase than that 
indicated by the teachers' reports. 

The gentleman who made the inquiries and tabu- 
lated the results (a very painstaking member of the 
Amherst Faculty) concluded his report with the fol- 
lowing comments, which seem to the Committee to 
have deep significance : 

"When I have indicated the increase in the cost 
of living based on increase in prices of commodi- 
ties and services, the story is by no means com- 
pletely told. The standard of life which a college 
professor must now maintain entails an increase 
in expenditure, as compared with fifteen years 
ago, that statistics of prices do not show. It costs 
him more to maintain his former standard. But 
the change of standard enforced upon him by 
social changes and the sentiments of the college 
community forces an additional expenditure. Be- 
sides this, the progress of knowledge calls for an 
increase in facilities in the way of books, travel, 
and general equipment in order that he may keep 
abreast or ahead in the running and meet the 
demands of service to his institution. Such 
changes of standard in living and equipment can- 
not be reduced to statistics, but they are known 
to all college men. 

"So much on the increased cost of living. Let 
me indicate a method by which to judge of the 

17 



adequacy of a college professor's income. Some 
investigation has led me to the conclusion that at 
Amherst a college professor spends his income 
approximately as follows with a family of four: 
rent 17^0, fuel 6%, lighting 2%, food 35%, 
clothing 20%, sundries 20%. Assuming that he 
, has a salary of $3000, that would mean $600 for 
sundries. But what does sundries cover? Such 
items as the following: laundry, house-cleaning, 
kitchen supplies, repairs, such as replacement of 
furniture, rugs, bed-clothing, etc., doctors' bills, 
dentistry, life insurance, subscriptions that he is 
called upon to make and wants to make, support 
of athletics and Y. M. C. A. benevolence, pres- 
ents, books, travel, vacations, and the education 
of his children. 

"There are college professors who for years 
buy no books because they cannot afford it, who 
for the same reason do not go to the theater, do 
not subscribe $5 to the musical program, never 
ride in a parlor-car, never have been to the sea- 
shore or to the mountains, and never could afford 
to take a sabbatical year to freshen up their lif^ 
and their work." if I 

In explanation of the last remark the Committee 
add that during a sabbatical year but half salary is paid. 

Under these conditions the necessity for a change is 
evident. Some increase of salaries is inevitable. It is 
true that a small increase will accomplish something 
if it enable teachers to meet necessary expenses. The 
great public necessity, however, is that some step be 
taken toward establishment of new standards of com- 
pensation. 

18 



We believe that there is but one way in which to 
meet this situation. If the College were to adopt the 
settled policy that it would accept no gifts which 
involve increased expense, were it to announce 
that its deliberate purpose is and shall be the in- 
definite increase of teachers' salaries, and that to 
this purpose it will use all its resources, Amherst 
would at once occupy a distinctive position among 
the colleges and universities of the country, and 
would do something more than her share to restore 
the dignity of a great profession. Until this posi- 
tion is taken we must expect to be small workers in a 
great field, doing what others do, but not so well. 
When the new position is taken, not alone in the inter- 
est of the College but for learning itself, we believe 
that Amherst will represent a great public service 
which deserves support. We cannot believe that in 
such a matter this support would be wholly lacking, 
and we hope that the time would soon come when Am- 
herst would be able not to make a small increase only 
in its professional salaries, but to initiate a movement 
of profound influence throughout the country. 



IMPROVEMENT IN THE QUALITY 
OF SCHOLARSHIP 

Amherst is not a large college and has never been 
influenced by ambition for numbers nor participated 
in the race for size. We have no desire to use our 
students to magnify the institution, but, on the con- 
trary, wish to use all the means at our command for 
the greatest advantage of every student who comes to 
us. We have heard alumni of large colleges debate 
the future of the small college, and we see their class- 

19 



rooms so crowded that instruction is almost impossible 
and a lecture of an hour a week must be supplemented 
by two hours a week in which the class in small groups 
meets many tutors, hardly their seniors. Hence comes 
the suggestion of Mr. Charles Francis Adams that 
Harvard, "save in name and continuity, should cease 
to exist," and that in its place should be "a group of 
colleges, all independent, ... so limited in size that 
individuality would be not only possible but a neces- 
sary part of the system." Hence also the "quadrangle 
system" so called, the "preceptorial system," and 
whatever other devices may be used to make a large 
institution do the personal work necessary for educa- 
tion—in short, to secure for large colleges the in- 
herent advantages of the small ones. 

At Amherst there is no such problem. Here is in- 
dividual training capable of unlimited development 
With a renewed faculty we may start this work, but 
to take a position of leadership as a great classical 
institution requires development among the students 
of a purpose and life directed toward scholarly excel- 
lence. Such a condition does not now exist. Dr. 
Woodrow Wilson says that 

"The real intellectual life of a body of under- 
graduates, if there be any, manifests itself not in 
the class-room, but in what they do and talk of 
and set before themselves as their favorite objects 
between classes and lectures. You will see the 
true life of a college in the evenings, at the din- 
ner-table or beside the fire, in the groups that 
gather and the men that go off eagerly to their 
work, where youths get together and let them- 
selves go upon their favorite themes — in the 

20 



effect their studies have upon them when no com- 
pulsion of any kind is on them. The effects of 
learning are its real tests, the real tests alike of its 
validity and of its efficiency. The mind can be 
driven, but that is not life. Life is voluntary or 
unconscious. It is breathed in out of a sustain- 
ing atmosphere. It is shaped by environment. It 
is habitual, continuous, productive." 

There are schools which have such an atmosphere, 
in which a young man finds an environment of vivid 
intellectual life ; schools which draw a young man into 
a current where yielding is easy and resistance hard; 
where he discovers a severe course of mental training 
whose vigor comes from his associations and the de- , 
mands of his fellows, not from compulsion of the 
faculty. There is probably no college in the country 
in which such a condition exists. 

"Life at college," Dr. Wilson goes on to say, 
"is one thing, the work of the college another, en- 
tirely separate and distinct. The life is the field 
that is left free for athletics not only, but also for 
every other amusement and diversion. Studies 
are no part of that life, and there is no competi- 
tion. Study is the work which interrupts the life, 
introduces an embarrassing and inconsistent ele- 
ment into it. The faculty has no part in the life ; 
it organizes the interruption, the interference." 

No institution of which this is true arouses the be- 
lief which Mr. Gladstone expressed of the Oxford of 
his time — that "she is providentially designed to be the 
fountain of blessings, spiritual, social, and intellec- 

21 



tual, to this and to other countries, to the present and 
future times." No institution of which this is true 
answers the just expectation of those parents who at 
personal sacrifice, often great, send their sons to col- 
lege that they may be better prepared for that modern 
world of which it is said that "it contains an uncom- 
mon challenge to effort," "and all the achievements to 
which it challenges are uncommonly difficult." 

The life which Dr. Wilson describes is no prepara- 
tion for this modern world of difficulty. On the con- 
trary, as Mr. Birdseye says, the college too often 
teaches "a mental sloth, carelessness, and inaccuracy 
which are quite the antithesis of good education, and 
of the business training that the non-college competi- 
tor is getting under some stern master in the office, the 
shop, the factory, the store, or other business training- 
school. For eight hours or more each day, the latter 
is part of a carefully organized system, a machine that 
detects his every lapse and fits him for higher respon- 
sibility. These disqualifying habits of sloth, careless- 
ness, and inaccuracy, acquired or intensified at college, 
are often so bad as quite to negative the advantages of 
a college course, and are too high a price for a young 
man to pay for what he gets out of his four years." 
Much too high indeed, for this is but teaching failure. 

"Falso queritur," said Sallust, "de natura sua 
genus humanum, quod imbecille, atque aevi brevis, 
sorte potius quam virtute regatur. Nam contra 
reputando, neque majus aliud neque praestabilius 
invenias, magisque naturae industriam hominum 
quam vim aut tempus deesse." 

It is the belief of the Class of 1885 that the colleges 
of the country have permitted themselves to be led 

22 



aside from their true function, that some reaction is 
inevitable, and that no college can better lead such a 
movement than Amherst. "It is curious," Mr. Charles 
Francis Adams said, "to think how much the standard 
of classic requirements might be raised were not the 
better scholars weighted down by the presence of the 
worse." It is inspiring to think what might be the 
effects upon college standards and the life of the coun- 
try if even in but one institution, instead of this drag 
of poor scholarship, the better scholars were assisted 
by a living interest of their fellow-workers. 

Here is the work which Amherst can do better, we 
think, than almost any other college. We can take 
advantage of our position as a small college and place 
our emphasis upon the individual training and high 
quality of scholarship which should be characteristic 
of the small college. When Amherst takes this place, 
it seizes leadership, but no such distinction comes with 
half-way measures. 

The College cannot devote its whole strength and all 
its energies to the elevation of standards and improve- 
ment in the quality of its work, while at the same time 
it endeavors to receive increasing numbers. At this 
point choice is inevitable, and it is in the neglect to 
meet this demand of existing and imperative condi- 
tions by a deliberate decision that most of the small 
colleges have made their mistake. This is an error 
which Amherst can avoid. We are seekers for schol- 
arship, not for numbers, and our position can be made 
clear and publicly distinctive only by limitation upon 
the number of our students. 

Such a limitation being established, it is evident that 
the applicants for admission to the College must 
undergo some selective process — preferably, the Com- 

23 



mittee urge, by competitive examination. The honor 
of success in such a competition, the consciousness of 
having achieved individual recognition in the field of 
scholarship, the esprit de corps which must result, 
would create at Amherst a condition such as now 
exists in no American college, bringing together such 
a body of students and teachers intent upon serious 
work and the best scholarship as should, in time, 
make a deep impression upon the life and thought of 
the country. It is possible in this way to make Am- 
herst a place where, by four years of valuable work, 
students may receive a real preparation for the life of 
harder work which awaits them, and when this is 
done Amherst will have a conspicuous and honorable 
place, preeminent in its way among all American col- 
leges. 

By doing these things, perhaps not all at once, but 
nevertheless as soon as may be, Amherst will become 
known all over the country. A great influence will be 
exerted to restore the dignity of the teaching profes- 
sion. More seriousness will be forced into college life. 
It will become an honor to prepare for Amherst; am- 
bitious students will desire the prestige which comes 
from entering, and an Amherst diploma will have a 
distinctive value. 

The effect upon the income of the College the Com- 
mittee has been unable to study thoroughly. Over 
one quarter of the students who attended Amherst last 
year were candidates for the scientific degree. The 
abolition of this degree would, therefore, make a very 
considerable difference in the numbers attending the 
College. The reduction would in all probability be 
somewhat less than the figures alone would indicate, 
for some men preparing for the scientific degree could 

24 



I 



without great difficulty, and if necessary undoubtedly 
would, qualify for the degree of Bachelor of Arts. 

In any event, nevertheless, the abolition of the B.S. 
degree seems to be required. Men who desire a thor- 
ough scientific course must in fairness be sent else- 
where, and from this would come our greatest loss in 
attendance. 

From the numbers remaining there would at first 
be some slight reduction resulting from competitive 
admission, but it seems that this would very soon right 
itself. There is good reason to believe that as schools 
and many other institutions have found the sure cause 
of growth in the establishment of a waiting list, so 
Amherst might find that with a limitation upon at- 
tendance, and admission by competition, the number as % 
well as quality of applicants would improve. It would 
be reasonable to hope that in less than five years the 
College would again have an attendance equal to the 
present, or as near thereto as the limit which may be 
established would permit. Such deficiency of income 
as might exist in the meantime, amounting perhaps to 
fifteen or twenty thousand dollars a year, could, the 
Committee believe, be covered by five-year pledges 
from alumni who would be glad to see the College 
take such a stand as has been outlined. 
We therefore urge upon the Trustees : 

( 1 ) That the instruction given at Amherst College 
be a modified classical course as the meaning of that 
term has been described ; 

(2) That the degree of Bachelor of Science be 
abolished ; 

(3) That the College adopt the deliberate policy 
to devote all its means to the indefinite increase of 
teachers' salaries ; 

25 



(4) That the number of students attending the Col- 
lege be limited ; 

(5) That entrance be permitted only by competitive 
examination. 

E. Parmalee Prentice, Chairman, 
Ellsworth G. Lancaster, 
William G. Thayer, 

Committee of the Class of 1885. 



35 Wall Street, New York, 
November, 19 10. 



26 



A NOTEWORTHY PROJECT IN HIGHER 
EDUCATION 

The Outlook, February i8, 1911 

A real democracy must see that the chance for an elementary 
education is open to every man and woman. This is the first 
essential. But it is also essential that there should be the 
amplest opportunity for every kind of higher education. The 
education of the mass, while the most important problem in 
democratic education, is in no way or shape by and of itself 
sufficient. Democracy comes short of what it should be just 
to the extent that it fails to provide for the exceptional indi- 
vidual the highest kind of exceptional training; for democracy % 
as a permanent world force must mean not only the raising of 
the general level but also the raising of the standards of excel- 
lence to which only exceptional individuals can attain. The table- 
land must be raised, but the high peaks must not be leveled 
down; on the contrary, they too must be raised. Highly im- 
portant though it is that the masons and bricklayers should be 
excellent, it is nevertheless a grave mistake to suppose that any 
excellence in the bricklayers will enable us to dispense with 
architects. 

In this country we have met better than in other countries 
the demand for general education, and there is now on foot 
a widespread and most useful and important agitation to better 
this type of general education by making it more practical, by 
making it more a training of the average boy and girl for what 
that average boy or girl must do in after life. The higher tech- 
nical schools carry out the same purpose on a more advanced 
scale. Law schools, medical schools, agricultural institutes, 
engineering schools, and all similar schools for technical train- 
ing are being improved and are increasing in numbers. The 
average State university takes its students as soon as they leave 
the high schools and gives them a technical training as a prepa- 
ration for some professional or commercial career, and it does 

27 



this on so large a scale and so successfully that the small, 
privately endowed college of the old type cannot in this field 
compete successfully with its great State-aided rival. The 
large private universities, especially in the East, which have 
no State support, have been forced to meet this rivalry, and 
have been enabled to do so only by the extraordinary gifts 
which they have received from friends and alumni. Through 
these endowments new technical schools and professional and 
post-graduate courses have been established in profusion, and 
it is this fact that enables Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, 
and certain other similar private institutions to perform the 
work which the State universities also perform, by taking stu- 
dents from high schools and graduating them equipped to 
pursue a technical occupation. 

It is to meet the state of affairs thus created that Messrs. 
E. Parmalee Prentice, Ellsworth G. Lancaster, and William G. 
Thayer, of the Class of 1885 at Amherst, have as a committee 
prepared a plan which they have submitted to the Trustees of 
that College. Their report is one of the most noteworthy 
of recent educational documents. In their opinion, Amherst 
at present has no place such as that which it filled fifty or even 
twenty-five years ago, when education was not of so technical 
a character, and when a college man was more representative 
of individual training and general culture than at present. As 
things are now, the high school fits for the university, and the 
university for the selected calling. Amherst, on the other 
hand, demands a preparation not within the tendencies of the 
high school, and gives a course of training which does not 
specially fit a man for any particular calling. Moreover, Am- 
herst has not the means which will enable it much longer to 
compete on their own terms against the State universities and 
huge privately endowed universities. Either Amherst must be 
content to occupy an entirely secondary position in the educa- 
tional field, or else it ought to occupy a no less entirely separate 
and distinctive portion of that field. 

The three men who have signed the address then proceed 
to give the reasons why they believe that here is a distinctive 
field of the highest value which Amherst both can and ought to 
occupy. With equal boldness and wisdom, they advocate 
Amherst's frankly taking the position that it does not intend 

28 



to have anything to do with that type of education— necessarily, 
much the most popular type— the appraisal of which is purely 
commercial, the value of the training being measured by the 
income it returns. They insist that, in addition to this more 
ordinary and usually more necessary form of training, there is 
another which should be undergone simply for the sake of 
learning and for the benefit of the State ; the kind of training 
which will help in giving to the State the incalculable benefits 
of a literature of the first rank and statesmanship of the first 
rank. For this purpose they believe that Amherst, so far from 
diminishing the attention given to classical training, should 
greatly increase it, modifying it from time to time, of course, to 
meet the demands of modern scholarship; and that for this 
purpose Amherst's aim should be to get the best teachers of the 
country in its own chosen field of work, and the ablest and most 
serious of the young men who desire to profit by such a course 
of teaching. They propose that Amherst shall frankly abandon 
the purely scientific part of collegiate work and stand for a 
liberal classical education, an education along the old lines, but 
better than could be obtained by the old methods ; an education 
which will make Amherst of high value to the public by train- 
ing statesmen and leaders of public thought in civics, in the 
history of government, in the development and significance of 
institutions, in the meaning of civilization. This education is, 
in Amherst, to be the substitute for the effort personally to 
equip a man for a trade. 

The Committee is careful to explain that it does not advocate 
the elimination of the sciences nor advocate the unchanged 
classical course of fifty years ago. A knowledge of science is 
part of a liberal education ; but the science is to be taught so as 
to turn out, not an engineer, a chemist, an electrician, a biolo- 
gist, but a man of broad general scientific as well as of broad 
general classical training. The Committee also expressly dis- 
claims any kind of criticism upon what is done by the average 
big university of to-day, and especially by the average State 
university. On the contrary, it explicitly recognizes the fact 
that technical education and trade education are essential to 
the work of the world, and that the vast development of the 
schools and universities in technical lines has been a public and 
iirgent necessity. But it insists, and quite rightly, that this does 

29 



not meet all the demands of the world, and that different insti- 
tutions can with profit to the public turn their attention in 
different directions. Its theory is that Amherst should stand 
for a cultural education, for one which will give breadth of 
view, which will fit a man not so much to be a leader in any one 
special calling as to be a leader of public thought; that the 
graduate of Amherst shall not be specially fitted for one voca- 
tion, but that his training shall have been such as to stand out- 
side the straight line to pecuniary reward. There is room in 
our country for institutions of every kind, and the need for 
highly efficient technical schools does not imply that there is 
any less need than formerly for the highest and best type of 
classical education. 

Accordingly the Committee states that, in its judgment, Am- 
herst should now completely cease the effort to compete in tech- 
nical education with other institutions, and devote itself to the 
classical field of education — to what were once called the 
"humanities" — and that in this field it should endeavor to take 
a position as a leader. To accomplish this end, it advocates, 
first, that the Faculty should be composed of the best teachers 
in the country for their chosen courses, and, second, that the 
body of students and the purpose and life of the College should 
be directed toward excellence in scholarship. The most funda- 
mentally important part of the proposition is the proposal to 
stop all effort to increase the material equipment of the College, 
and, instead, to endeavor to increase the infinitely more impor- 
tant intellectual equipment by very largely raising the salaries 
of the instructors. Not only is the Committee absolutely right in 
this proposition as regards Amherst, but what it says applies in 
only a less degree just as much to other institutions of learning. 
Altogether too much money has been put into bricks and mor- 
tar in our colleges compared to the amount that has been put 
into the salaries of the men who are to give the instruction. A 
really good university should have among its professors not 
only good teachers, but men of creative and productive scholar- 
ship. There are many such now. But there ought to be many 
more. It is not necessary that teaching be made a conspicu- 
ously lucrative profession, but it is necessary that the compen- 
sation be not conspicuously low. A young man of ability with 
high ideals ought not to make money-making his first pre- 

30 



occupation. But he certainly and emphatically ought to insist 
upon an adequate salary, one sufficient to support his family 
and to enable him to associate with his equals on equal terms. 
A successful professor in a prominent college should occupy 
a position that will compare well in dignity with the position 
achieved by success in other occupations. The very low salaries 
of our college instructors and professors represent a funda- 
mental national evil. There should be a fundamental change, 
and, as the Committee says, in order to bring about this fun- 
damental change what is needed is not a slight increase but a 
radically new standard of compensation. If Amherst would 
take the lead and in striking fashion inaugurate this new stand- 
ard, that mere fact would at once give the College a command- 
ing position of a unique kind. 

In conclusion, the Committee urges, to carry out its policy: 

(i) That the instruction given at Amherst College be a 
modified classical course. 

(2) That the degree of Bachelor of Science be abol- 
ished. 

(3) That the College adopt the deliberate policy of de- 
voting all its means to the indefinite increase of teachers' 
salaries. 

(4) That the number of students attending the College 
be limited. 

(5) That entrance be permitted only by competitive 
examination. 

I am by no means sure that this fifth provision is wise; and, 
in my judgment, the "classical course" should include also a 
wide sweep of general history and literature. But the proposi- 
tions, taken together, represent a proposal which, though radi- 
cal and startling in its novelty and in its utter divergence from 
the ordinary type of educational proposal, nevertheless if put 
into effect, will mean far-reaching benefit to our national life. 
If Amherst College is willing and able substantially to adopt 
the suggestion of the Committee, a great good will have been 
accomplished; and in any event the Committee is to be con- 
gratulated for having so clearly set forth the principle which 
it is more essential for America than for any other nation 
effectually to realize. Theodore Roosevelt. 

31 



THE OPPORTUNITY OF THE SMALL COLLEGE 

New York Evening Post, editorial article, February 25, 1911, 
copied in The Nation, March 2, igii 

We have increased our machinery of education enormously and 
have thrown the old engines into the junk heap, yet somehow 
we cannot get away from an uneasy feeling that the product 
has in some respects deteriorated. The continual complaint 
that athletics and social functions have usurped the place of 
study in our colleges is only one expression of a pretty wide 
dissatisfaction. President Lowell made this the key-note of his 
inaugural address, and declared that the one thing necessary 
was to reawaken the imagination of the students and to arouse 
their ambition by some sharpening of competition for honors 
in scholarship. Many causes have contributed to this con- 
dition of benumbed intellects; perhaps the most obvious is 
the simple fact that students no longer have any real community 
of intellectual interests, owing to the variety of courses fol- 
lowed. What common ground of conversation can there be, or 
what basis of stirring emulation, between the student, for 
example, who is spending his afternoons in a laboratory in- 
vestigating the pressures of steam, and one who is giving 
laborious days to a comprehension of the human problems that 
underlie the Greek tragedy, or between the student who is ab- 
sorbed in the delightful research into Gothic roots and one 
who is concerned with the literature of an age that used the 
word Gothic as a synonym for barbarous? 

Here is a difficulty which, for the large university at least, 
may seem at present insurmountable. The university, in the 
very nature of the case, may feel bound to foster all the diverse 
activities of the world for which it is at once a place of training 
and of progressive experiment. And in truth the lack of 
community among the students of our universities is only a 
reflection of what has come to be the state of society at large. 

32 



I 



Compare any circle of men who meet together to-day for the 
discussion of intellectual matters with a similar reunion of 
one or two centuries ago. It used to be a common rule of 
such gatherings that any subject might be the center of con- 
versation except politics. On the contrary, any such circle 
to-day, which does not exclude men of affairs, is almost sure 
to drift away from every theme except politics and reform — 
only there can all minds touch. There is no greater error than 
to suppose that bodies of men are attracted together by diver- 
sity of interests. 

The way of escape from this deadening dispersion is thus 
almost blocked, as matters now stand, for the large university. 
But with the small college, technically so called, the case is 
different. The very limitations of its means and Faculty pre- 
vent it from competing with the large university as a general 
workshop, so to speak, of all the intellectual activities of the 
age. If it develops its laboratories, the humanities are bound 
to suffer; and if its money and choice of men are for the 
humanities, the laboratories are sure to go unfed. And even 
within a particular study it cannot look for completeness from 
a number of balancing specialties, but must cultivate the sub- 
ject itself in a general way. 

This limitation has been recognized by some of the more 
firmly established Eastern institutions. A few years ago there 
was a good deal of talk, for example, about definitely limiting 
the number of students at Williams, but we note that this 
year's freshman class is considerably above 200. An "Address 
to the Trustees of Amherst College by the Class of 1885," 
recently published, goes into the question more thoroughly 
and with more decisive purpose. The Committee makes five 
proposals : 

(i) That the instruction given at Amherst College 
be a modified classical course as the meaning of that term 
has been described; 

(2) That the degree of Bachelor of Science be abol- 
ished ; 

(3) That the College adopt the deliberate policy to 
devote all its means to the indefinite increase of teachers' 
salaries ; 

33 



(4) That the number of students attending the college 
be limited; 

(5) That entrance be permitted only by competitive 
examination. 

The real difficulty is likely to lie in the matter of the first 
two articles, which define the quality of the excellence to be 
aimed at. To abolish the degree of Bachelor of Science, and 
make the classics the heart of the curriculum— one can hear the 
protests that are likely to be hurled at the authorities. Yet it 
is not easy to see how the small college, leaving out of account 
the technical institutions which give science degrees and have 
their own exclusions, is to derive any advantage from the limi- 
tations save in just this direction. In salary it can scarcely 
hope to go beyond the richer universities, if it can equal them. 
It can, however, attain that unity of scholarly interests— with, 
of course, proper variety — the absence of which is having so 
benumbing an effect on the larger and more heterogeneous 
institutions. At a dinner where were present several members 
of the Faculty of a certain small college which apes notoriously 
the university system, the talk turned into kindly remembrance 
of the absent brothers; and said the learned investigator in 
biology to his neighbor of the physical laboratory: "Do you 
know that Smith came to me to-day and wanted to know about 
something in biology; what has a philosopher to do with 
biology?" It is just that spirit of dispersion that might be 
eliminated by giving to education, where it can be given, a 
sure order and hierarchy. And, whatever may be said here 
and there against the "dead languages," however they have 
been abandoned for easier and seemingly more direct paths 
to success, there are no studies other than Latin and Greek 
that can be practically proposed as the center of such a system. 
Indeed, the Committee whose report we are considering makes 
a strong appeal for their unique value in individual culture and 
in the national life. And there are other indications that such 
views in regard to the classics are becoming commoner to-day 
among men of wide knowledge of life and among our profes- 
sional educators. It is not unusual to hear from practical men 
such opinions as Mr. Bryce put so well in his letter to the Sym- 
posium on the Classics held at Ann Arbor in 1909 : 

34 



"It is a mistake to live so entirely in the present as we 
are apt to do in these days, for the power of broad thinking 
suffers. 

"A mastery of the literature and history of the ancient 
world makes every one fitter to excel than he would have 
been without it, for it widens the horizon, it sets standards 
unlike our own, it sharpens the edge of critical discrimina- 
tion, it suggests new lines of constructive thought." 

In the same spirit Mr. James Loeb, formerly of Kuhn, 
Loeb & Co., could say: "That a classical course is a valuable 
training for business life has always semed to me a self-evident 
proposition." 

Latin and Greek are still the humanities, and the first small 
college that shall be brave enough to bring back to its halls 
the true humanistic spirit, may be an influence in education 
the ends of which no one can foresee. 



35 



AN INTENSIVE COLLEGE 

The New York Times, editorial article. May 7, 191 1, reprinted in 
Springfield Republican, May 10, 1911 

A new form of college is described in a recent number of 
the Independent by Prof. Harry A. Gushing, formerly of the 
Golumbia Law School. It is based on an address issued by 
the Class of 1885 in Amherst College through a committee 
consisting of E. P. Prentice, Esq., of this city; President Lan- 
caster of Olivet College ; and Dr. Thayer, Head Master of St. 
Mark's School, all names entitled to respect. 

We shall not now discuss the general nature of the college 
course recommended, save to remark that it seeks thorough 
culture rather than preparation for any special vocation. What 
interests us particularly is the means proposed to make the 
College potent in a high kind of utility for those who are ad- 
mitted to it. For this purpose it is proposed that the number 
of students be strictly limited; that only the most promising 
among applicants be selected; that the high standard set at 
entrance be rigidly maintained, and that the resources of the 
College be devoted, not to buildings and grounds and "ex- 
pansion" generally, but to securing enough pay to professors 
to get the very best in their several lines. In other words, the 
College is to be organized to give the best culture by the best 
teachers to young men best adapted to take it and most eager 
and efficient in pursuit of it. 

This, we believe, is in the right line. It is by no means the 
model for all colleges, and it is not intended to fill the place 
of the universities which deserve the name. Much less is it 
intended to replace professional or technical schools, or the 
increasing number of institutions that aim to fit young men 
for callings other than professional. But it would benefit a 
certain class, numerous when we take our whole population 
into account, who seek through hard work to attain a really 
thorough training in the art of thinking and of study, which 

36 



is, essentially, education. For this class at present the pro- 
vision in the United States is pitifully inadequate. It is in a 
way less than it was fifty years ago, when college students 
generally were confined to those who were seeking to 
enter one of the three professions then recognized. 
For these general culture in a limited course was consid- 
ered sufficient, and usually proved so. But the saving 
condition in the relatively modest institutions before the Civil 
War was that nearly all the students "went through college" 
at substantial cost and sacrifice to themselves and their families, 
and were disposed to work hard to make the most of what was 
a real privilege. 

The Amherst Committee seek to secure this same spirit and 
to make the most of it. They would sift out the lazy, dull, the 
incapable, and give to those really able and determined to 
take it careful and thorough training in such general culture 
as can be had in four years. They would establish a working 
college for working students, and for such an institution there 
is a definite and strong demand. 



37 



THE REGENERATION OF THE SMALL COLLEGE 

New York Independent, April 13, 191 1 

The old, unsettled problem of the status and service of the 
small college has never received such keen discussion as has 
followed the recent address of the Class of '85 to the Trustees 
of Amherst College. The solution of that problem thus far 
either has been made unnecessary or has been avoided. In 
some instances the small college has ceased to be small; 
in other instances it has ceased to be a college; in still 
other instances it has temporized in the hope of out- 
growing one characteristic or the other under the stimulus 
of purely business management or of academic competition. 
This indecision has been met squarely by the proposals of this 
address; and if these can be adapted to past traditions and 
existing conditions, either at Amherst or elsewhere, there 
may be one small college unique in its definite and ambitious 
purpose, which will stand for a higher ideal in collegiate schol- 
arship, which will not represent the prevailing spirit of inert 
opportunism and philosophic compromise, and in which the 
Faculty will do more than "organize the interruptions" of 
college life. 

The address, in which the Class has "stepped boldly into a 
relation to their College which opens up an entirely new field 
for alumni activity," has already aroused abundant comment 
and has been regarded as a summons to some small college to 
realize and seize upon what many believe to be a real oppor- 
tunity for public service. Unconsciously it applies the test 
of the unsatisfied world to the satisfied college. 

The underlying idea is that the small college should provide 
a broad cultural training adapted to meet the present call for 
carefully trained graduates, should lead in a rational reaction 
against the prevailing trend to vocationalism and "business" 
education, and should illustrate the utility of a reversion to 
the old humanities, using them, with their modern develop- 

38 



merits, as the basis for four years of discipline. The college 
course would become a real business for all and not a diversion 
for many. Having once adopted an ideal and a standard of 
training, those would be maintained, and to their maintenance 
all else would be subordinated. As no responsible newspaper, 
even though a purely commercial enterprise, should allow 
its editorial page to be influenced by its business department, 
so no college should permit its standards to be lowered or its 
methods to be relaxed in order to preserve the numerical 
strength of its student body. 

To these ends, as attainable in this instance, only five specific 
suggestions are made: the strengthening of a modified classi- 
cal course; the abolition of the B. S. degree; the indefinite 
increase of the salaries of professors; the limitation of the 
number of students; and the admission of students only 
through a competitive examination or some other really selec- 
tive process. H 

The proposal of anything bordering on classicism is certain 
in these days to meet much hostile criticism; and the use of the 
term "classical" will in some quarters be reason for prejudice 
against any plan. No word seems more available as a descrip- 
tion of the course in the small New England college of fifty 
years ago. It was classical, in that Greek and Latin were 
predominant; but it was much more. Then the small college 
was stimulated by a spirit of puritanic idealism and devotion ; 
singleness of purpose was strengthened by the possession of 
an unusual opportunity; vigor and thoroughness in all work 
were maintained by the realization that college then meant 
privilege; and through all ran the conviction that the college 
man owed some especial duty to the public. That was the 
controlling spirit of the classical college; and a return to that 
is to be desired quite as much as a return to Latin and Greek. 
Indeed, the proposal of a modified classical course takes its 
start from the proposition that a college should train for public 
usefulness men who will have breadth and thoroughness, the 
power of application as well as of appreciation, and the per- 
sistence which usually is developed only in the work of the 
world. If the spirit of the small college could be the spirit 
of the old classical days modified by the better portion only of 
the modern college spirit, there would be little demand for 

39 



any change of curriculum. For such a revival of the old spirit 
and old ideals no more favorable place and no more congenial 
atmosphere can be found than in the small college of New 
England. 

So far as the curriculum is concerned, these most recent 
proposals are not radical. While the cultural and even in- 
spirational value of the classics is insisted upon, recognition 
is also given to the importance of the modern languages. The 
sciences, too, are specifically valued as important factors in a 
well-rounded course. In fact, so far as subject matter goes, 
the modified classical course is substantially the present course 
in many colleges, but for the fact that in recent years some 
colleges have appeared to treat the classics as dying languages, 
of none but sentimental value. Against that tendency to decry 
the utility of the classics now appears this vigorous revolt. 
If there is to be anything of idealism in college life, it can only 
be by properly subordinating those tendencies which aim at 
developing chiefly an earning power. The attempt is to bring 
about a reversion to old ideals, and some college, equipped 
with a Faculty suitable for such work, may take the leadership 
in reforming American college life and in freeing college 
education from the criticism of the business man who sees 
in it neither sound business training nor broad scholarship 
and only disqualification for success in business. 

The second proposal, the abolition of the B. S. degree by a 
college of the modified classical type, calls for no comment or 
argument. If the small college does not, as few do, train for 
a scientific calling, the courses underlying the degree can be 
little more than cultural courses, and the degree will be a mis- 
nomer. If such a degree really differs from the B. A. degree 
only by ignorance of Greek (and sometimes Latin also) and, 
possibly, by slightly greater knowledge of the sciences, then it 
really means nothing distinctive. This would still more clearly 
appear to be the case wherever a candidate for the B. A. degree 
is permitted to take even more courses in science than are re- 
quired of the candidate for the B. S. degree. The proposition 
is unanswerable that a degree should not in itself be a deceptive 
figure of speech. 

The third proposal, that the college should declare for a 
policy of indefinite increase in the salaries of professors, will 

40 



i 



commend itself to many. This has been a prevailing and futile 
dogma since colleges began. The first professors looked upon 
their calling as akin to that of missionaries, and this error 
has burdened all their successors. The early types were not 
urged to go into teaching; they felt called to the work; and, 
exercising a choice of a well-filled calling, they did not com- 
plain of its scant recompense for devoted service. No amount 
of comment has been able to alter this situation. The press 
to-day, and for years, has been full of generalities on the 
subject; but seldom are figures offered. When it appears that 
in a well-endowed college the average man of the entire faculty 
pays out yearly for the necessaries of living a few hundred 
dollars more than his salary, certainly in that college the pro- 
fessors have to "magnify their calling" at their own expense 
and sacrifice. To demonstrate this injustice a combined bal- 
ance-sheet of the Faculty is conclusive. To provide an adequate 
remedy, and to establish quality as the final test of usefulness,^ 
a college must be content to have the bulk of its funds so 
obscurely invested as to show a return only in the classroom. 
This requires the rare power to resist the temptation to build 
and expand. The Committee who prepared the address in 
question would seem to go further, and have their College 
decline all gifts of buildings which might be unaccompanied 
by provision to meet the increased maintenance charges or 
which might provide facilities for more than a fixed maximum 
of students. To adopt this policy involves an excess of modesty 
in finance to which few college presidents will be able to yield. 
They might cease to be financial solicitors and be able to take 
this ground if once their productive endowments were ade- 
quate, their working equipment sufficient, and the size of their 
college so limited as to quiet the ambition for mere numbers. 
Such a degree of content with outward conditions will never 
exist as long as there is the stimulus to outgrow a proper and 
normal plant. To secure such content there must be adopted, 
as is now proposed, a policy of intensive college development. 
The two remaining propositions, the limitation in number 
of the student body and admission by a competitive process, 
are interdependent. Granted that the maximum of an entering 
class is arbitrarily fixed, those applying (unless mere priority 
of date of application is to control) must necessarily be sifted, 

41 



and if the limitation amounts to anything, the best among the 
applicants, up to the number needed, will be chosen. Whether 
this result is secured by competitive examination, or by the 
choice of those whose certificates show the most creditable 
preparation, or of those whose preparatory record otherwise 
shows the greatest capabilities, the fact is that by some selec- 
tive process the best only among the applicants will be received. 
Admission will then mean something real, and the limitation 
will be fully justified if the work in the college itself can be 
made of such a superior type that membership in such a college 
will mean excellence, and its degree will be truly distinctive. 
If any board of trustees will exercise the discrimination and 
courage properly to apply such tests to the work in their charge, 
and to establish such standards and keep to them, they will 
win the approval of many doubting parents and will develop 
an American college unlike any we have had in the thorough- 
ness of its work, the influence of its Faculty, and the character 
of its graduates. The problem seems not to be whether any 
college will be able and willing patiently to attempt this, but 
what college it will be. 

Harry A. Gushing. 
New York City. 



42 



A NEW ALUMNI MOVEMENT 

Yale Alumni Weekly, January 13, 1911 

The influence of the alumni of the Eastern universities on 
the work of their institutions has, within the last ten years or 
more, become a fact of striking interest and significance. We 
need not here rehearse the application of this generalization to 
Yale. Through the Alumni Advisory Board, the Alumni 
Fund, the Class Secretaries' Bureau, the various Alumni Asso- 
ciations, the Associated Western Yale Clubs, and the Alumni 
Weekly, Yale graduates have of late been coming to take a 
more and more interested and effective part — as far as their 
sphere of action permits them— in Yale affairs. Amherst 
graduates of the Class of 1885 have recently stepped boldly 
into a relation to their College which opens up an entirely new 
field for alumni activity. A memorial from that Class to the 
Amherst Trustees last November is a new thing in Eastern 
university life. It will be highly interesting to note the out- 
come. The plan proposed is a notable one. It calls for a con- 
fining of the Amherst curriculum to a broad classical education ; 
for the elimination of professional scientific branches; for a 
higher standard of undergraduate scholarship ; for competitive 
examinations for entrance; for a restriction of the number of 
students to a personal working proportion to the teachers ; and 
for a very considerable increase in the salaries of the Faculty. 
With the exception of the last-named clause, this proposal of 
the Amherst '85 graduates reads like a reconstruction of the 
old-fashioned Eastern college education. It has in it a great 
deal of matter for solid consideration. It is a far cry from the 
efforts seen now and then on the part of some Eastern institu- 
tions to strike out into the field of competition for numbers. 
It is far removed from the readjustments of entrance require- 
ments which now and then are adopted to attract the students 
who now go to other places. It is a distinct movement away 
from the kind of rivalry for popularity that one sees now and 

43 



then in some losing institution, and which, unfortunately, 
makes of intercollegiate athletics an advertising medium. Just 
how much will come of the Amherst memorial remains to be 
seen, but it may be said at this stage that in no recent mani- 
festation of alumni interest in a college's development has there 
been so vital a proposition made, nor so fundamental a policy 
offered. A brief review of some of the points brought out by 
the Amherst '85 graduates is given elsewhere in this issue. 



44 



THE AMHERST PROPOSALS 

Brown Alumni Monthly, January, 1911 

Amherst's twenty-five-year Class has stirred the educational 
world by suggesting certain new policies for its College, one 
being that the curriculum be limited to a "modified classical 
course." Another proposal is the following: "That entrance 
be permitted only by competitive examination," the avowed 
purpose being to limit the number of students. Another in- 
teresting suggestion is : "That the College adopt the deliberate 
policy to devote all its means to the indefinite increase of 
teachers' salaries." What action, if any, the authorities of 
Amherst will take on these proposals can only be a matter of % 
conjecture, but the suggestions are obviously applicable, if at 
all, to more than one institution. 

The expression, "a modified classical course," is open to 
various interpretations; but if it means an academic rather 
than a technical or trade course, there can hardly be any ob- 
jection to it so far as our older collegiate foundations are 
concerned. It may be of immense importance that our country 
should have skilful bricklayers or watchmakers, and an institu- 
tion might do a noble service by providing for their education, 
but it is still more important to the country to have men who 
are trained in thought and knowledge. It is to this latter 
service that our colleges were devoted by their founders, and 
it would seem to be their business to promote this end, rather 
than any other, however good ; and this end and aim we under- 
stand to be the one championed by the Amherst Class of 1885, 

Competitive entrance examinations are efficient means of 
reducing the number of students in a college if that result is 
thought desirable, and cases may arise in which restriction 
becomes the most natural course to pursue. It is clear that any 
educational plant can suffice for only a certain number of 
students. If the attendance has reached this limit, there is 
nothing to do but to enlarge the college in all directions or to 

45 



keep the numbers down. Eleven years ago Brown had greatly 
exceeded its accommodations — how much can best be judged 
by the enormous extension of its facilities that have been made 
since. It is now in substantial equilibrium as regards numbers 
and accommodations, and its numbers have remained the same 
during that period. But suppose we had an immediate pros- 
pect of another trebling or doubling, would our corporation 
favor undertaking the enormous outlay involved, or would it 
set the limit at one thousand and seek some device to keep our 
numbers within it? The method suggested for Amherst is the 
readiest one, but a juster and wiser one, in our opinion, is that 
employed at Park College, of insisting constantly upon a high 
standard of work, not only from term to term, but from week 
to week. The standard can evidently be so set as to afford any 
desired degree of exclusion. It is of course possible that the 
same practice may be suggested in the interest of scholarship 
as well as in that of physical accommodations. 

As to the matter of professors' salaries, while the word 
"indefinite" certainly sets no limit, however high, we need not 
consider so much the wording as the principle, which seems to 
be altogether businesslike, that if you expect to have good 
work, you must be willing to pay for it. Though altruism 
enters far too much into the teachers' side of the bargain, the 
ultimate result is that inadequate salaries mean inadequate 
teaching. This is the most wide-reaching of all the Amherst 
suggestions, and its principle is one that all governing boards 
everywhere are too apt to neglect. 

An Amherst Class has given serious counsel to its Alma 
Mater. Are there not Brown Classes that can give the univer- 
sity the result of their high thinking? 



46 



FAVOR SMALL COLLEGES 

The Journal, Wilmington, Delaware, editorial article, December 3, 1910 

Most colleges and universities smile a smile of satisfaction as 
the number of students at their respective institutions increases. 
They are proud of the large list of undergraduates, and to 
many the success of an institution is based on the length of 
the roll-call. During the last decade the number has greatly 
increased in all the more prominent institutions of learning, 
and the increase has probably been much greater in proportion 
than the growth of population. 

But here and there is a sign of a reaction against the tendency 
towards extremely large colleges. The Class of 1885 of Am- 
herst, one of the best of the smaller New England colleges, has 
presented a memorial to the Board of Trustees in favor of 
restricting the instruction given at the College to a modified 
classical course, limiting the number of students, and admitting 
these by competitive examination. This is a novel suggestion, 
and yet it is likely to attract serious attention on the part of 
those who favor the smaller colleges and who still stick to the 
classical course. If Amherst should adopt the suggestion of 
the Class of 1885, it would hold a unique place among the 
colleges, but no doubt there would always be a waiting list of 
those who desired to attend. 



47 



THE SUGGESTIONS OF '85 

The Hartford Courant, editorial article, February 20, igii 

The Trustees of Amherst College are considering — very 
thoughtfully, we may be sure — a communication from a Com- 
mittee of the Amherst Class of 1885. The members of the 
Committee are Mr. E. Parmalee Prentice of the New York 
bar, President Ellsworth G. Lancaster of Olivet College, and 
Head-master William G. Thayer of St. Mark's School, South- 
boro, Mass. They are filial sons of their Alma Mater, troubled 
in mind about her, solicitous for her future. Their com- 
munication is of an extraordinary character, interest, and im- 
portance. They represent to the Trustees that Amherst — for 
all the increase in the number of her college buildings and the 
size of her college classes — does not have the standing and 
distinction among American institutions of learning she had 
fifty years ago, or twenty-five years ago. They say that it is 
idle for her to attempt to compete with the endowed universi- 
ties of the East or the State-supported universities of the West 
in the work they are doing. She has not their funds or their 
facilities for it. They can train and equip engineers, chemists, 
electricians, etc., or business men and money-makers, as Am- 
herst cannot do. Either she must accept a position of acknow- 
ledged and permanent inferiority, or she must make for herself 
a place and mission and distinction of her own. 

It is such a new departure — which, after all, is only a return 
— that these members and spokesmen of the Class of 1885 urge 
upon the Trustees. They would have Amherst College defi- 
nitely renounce all thought of rivalry with the universities. 
They would have her be content with her present size and 
housing, limit the number of her students, and receive only 
such as are able to pass with credit a searching competitive 
examination at the threshold. They would have her abolish 
the degree of Bachelor of Science, requiring all her under- 
graduates to qualify themselves for that of Bachelor of Arts. 

48 



They would have her become once more a college of the 
humanities, giving her sons a sound classical education (with 
as much of science in it as a college graduate of the twentieth 
century ought to know), and sending them out into the world 
to be scholars and teachers, men of letters, professional men, or 
statesmen, according to their bent. And as one of the first steps 
in this return the Class of 1885 would have Amherst College 
cease to plan new buildings and for the present use every 
dollar that comes her way in increasing the salaries of her 
professors. 

Theodore Roosevelt, we notice, shakes his head a bit dubi- 
ously in the Outlook over the competitive entrance examination, 
and suggests (wisely) that the classical education should "in- 
clude a wide sweep of general history and literature." For the 
rest, he heartily approves. "The propositions, taken together, 
represent," he says, "a proposal which — though radical and 
startling in its novelty and in its utter divergence from the ordi- 
nary type of educational proposal— nevertheless, if put into 
effect, will mean far-reaching benefit to our national life. If 
Amherst College is willing and able substantially to adopt the 
suggestion of the Committee, a great good will have been 
accomplished." 

In this opinion we heartily concur. If the Trustees accept 
the suggestions of '85 and act upon them, it won't be long 
before Amherst's A. B. will take on a meaning and value not 
always attaching to that degree at the American universities 
which Eliotized themselves in haste and are now — some of 
them, at least — repenting at leisure. There are things much 
better worth while and more to be desired than mere bigness. 
Amherst could not set a finer example to her sister colleges in 
New England and the younger colleges in the younger States 
than by re-entering— contentedly, proudly, and once for all 
— into her heritage as a college of liberal arts. 



49 



THE AMHERST PLAN 

Indianapolis News, January 21, 1911 

Progress 

Something was said in this column last week of the plan pro- 
posed by the Amherst Class of 1885 looking to a reconstruction 
of the college course. The proposition is to give a broadly 
classical education, to eliminate the professional scientific 
branches, to raise the standard of undergraduate scholarship, 
to hold competitive examinations for extrance, to restrict the 
number of students, and to increase the salaries of the teachers. 
In its discussion of the subject the Yale Alumni Weekly says : 

This proposal reads like a reconstruction of the old- 
fashioned Eastern college education. It has in it a great 
deal of matter for solid consideration. It is a far cry 
from the efforts seen now and then on the part of some 
Eastern institutions to strike out into the field of com- 
petition for numbers. It is far removed from the read- 
justments of entrance requirements which now and then 
are adopted to attract the students who now go to other 
places. It is a distinct movement away from the kind of 
rivalry for popularity that one sees now and then in some 
losing institution, and which, unfortunately, makes of in- 
tercollegiate athletics an advertising medium. Just how 
much will come of the Amherst memorial remains to be 
seen, but it may be said at this stage that in no recent 
manifestation of alumni interest in a college's development 
has there been so vital a proposition made, or so funda- 
mental a policy offered. 

If the policy is "vital" and "fundamental," it does indeed 
deserve "solid consideration." There are two or three very 
simple truths which ought to be kept in mind by any one who 

50 



discusses this question. The first is that not all that seems 
to be progress is progress. Men and society may move, but it 
may be in the wrong direction. Or they may be carried by the 
pressure of forces which it seems at the time impossible to 
resist. So when we are told that our movement from the older 
to the newer ideals in education marks a real progress, we have 
a right to demand of those who make the assertion that they 
prove it. In truth, the burden is on them. All change is by no 
means improvement, as we have often seen in religion and 
politics. The Amherst men— and many agree with them — 
are profoundly convinced that the changes in education have 
been very decidedly for the worse. The general dissatisfaction 
with present conditions still further supports this view. Not 
for years has there been so much unfavorable comment on 
education as there is at the present time. The fact that things 
are different from what they once were by no means proves 
that they are better. 

Lost Ideals 

As change from the old does not necessarily indicate progress, 
so recurrence to the old does not indicate a failure to progress. 
Whether reversion to type is or is not a bad thing depends 
wholly on what the type is. The drunkard makes progress 
when he returns to the old and clean life which he had left 
behind him. The prodigal in the gospel first "came to himself," 
and then went back, or returned, or reverted to his father and 
the old home. Repentance always involves something of this 
return. Most of us would give much if we could once again 
know the innocence and artlessness of our earlier years. So 
in fancy we journey back, and at every step of the journey we 
feel that we are making in truth a royal progress, though we 
may be sadly conscious all the while that we shall never again 
wear the old garland. But we have no doubt that the backward 
path is the path of progress, and the thing that makes us sad is 
the realization that we are unable or unwilling to tread it. 
So it is quite clear that reversion to the old is very often the 
truest and noblest sort of progress. This is, of course, recog- 
nized by the prophet Jeremiah, who wrote of those who had 
caused the people "to stumble in their ways from the ancient 

51 



paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up." To the same 
great man and great teacher we owe the following admonition : 

Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, 
where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find 
rest for your souls. 

The old paths were blazed out by men who had had much ex- 
perience with life, and some knowledge of human nature. They 
were not mistaken about everything, are not false guides. A 
thing is not good because it is old, but then neither is a thing 
good because it is new. There is, however, a certain presump- 
tion to be indulged in favor of the old— of what has been tried 
and tested. That is a truth of which we, in our passion for 
change and innovation, make far too little. Our educational 
reformers have given it almost no weight, their theory being 
that whatever is, is wrong. Progress, therefore, does not 
necessarily mean going ahead; it may, and often does, mean 
going back— back to old and forgotten truths and principles. 

The Past 

The third general principle which it is desired to lay down is 
that history can have no value to any man who is unwilling to 
profit by its teaching, or unable to catch inspiration from the 
great lives that were lived long ago. If we accept the theory 
that truth is new-born in every generation; that knowledge, 
which can come only from patient study or painful experience, 
is a matter of special revelation to a chosen few who call them- 
selves reformers, then, indeed, the study of history is the most 
futile of all things. But to such may be commended the words 
in an address recently delivered : 

On and always on, to be sure, the Gleam that Merlin 
glimpsed must guide the footsteps of the race; but it is 
well at times to look backward to the brave days of old; 
to think of the men of the past whose services made this 
present possible; to listen to the elder voices— how they 
spoke to their time; to refresh our spirits at the perennial 
fountains of their wisdom of thought, and of their pa- 
triotic fervor of action. 

52 



But why all this unless we expect to be refreshed, stimulated, 
inspired and instructed? It was St. Paul who said to the 
Romans: "Whatsoever things were written aforetime were 
written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort 
of the scriptures might have hope." And again he said to the 
Corinthians: "Now all these things happened unto them for 
ensamples : and they are written for our admonition ; upon 
whom the ends of the world are come." In this latter case, 
to be sure, the experience of the past was to be avoided. But 
the point is that whether for instruction as to what we should 
do or for warning against what we should not do, the teaching 
of the past is of the highest possible value. Cultured men 
ought to stand steadfastly against all attempts to create a 
schism in life, against the efforts to discredit the experiences 
of the ages. The surest sign that a man is cultured is his 
ability to "see life steadily and see it whole," and his deep 
and loyal reverence for a great and sacred past. There are 
some things to which mere age gives dignity and charm — % 
wealth and learning, for instance. There was life on this planet 
before we were born, and it affects and influences present life 
more profoundly than we, in our satisfaction with our own 
achievements, always realize. Much of our research is de- 
voted to the rediscovering of lost and forgotten truth. Truth 
is not always an affair of the future. 



THE OLD EDUCATION 

Old Voices 

So the men of Amherst ask us, at least by implication, to re- 
consider our hastily delivered judgment on the old scheme of 
education. Did we condemn it too hastily, and without suffi- 
cient warrant? Is or is it not true that the present plan was 
at first considered to be merely an experiment? If so, has the 
experiment proved successful? Probably not one of these 
questions can be answered without some qualification, unless 
it be the first. It does seem as though we had been too sure of 
ourselves when we overthrew the old curriculum. But it must 
be recognized that it was the product of two forces, one of 
which has, to a certain extent, ceased to operate. Largely the 

53 



product of a time when the common people were not expected 
to be educated, it was based on the theory that learning was for 
the few. Greek and Latin were necessary to men who were to 
have anything to do with affairs. So the old system grew up, 
and it met the needs of the time. As it then existed it does not 
fit the needs of our time, and the very men who four or five 
hundred years ago followed the scheme then in vogue, would, 
were they alive to-day, be the first to admit the need for re- 
adaptation. For they were progressive men, many of them the 
heretics of their day. But this is far from being the whole 
story. For the classical course was not simply a development 
— it was also a manufactured thing. Great men saw that it 
was good, and that under it an admirable training could be had. 
This was true even in this country so late as thirty years ago. 
The writer of the article in the Yale paper must have had in 
his mind such men as Porter, Woolsey, Thacher, Packard, 
Dwight, and the rest, to say nothing of the great roll of alumni 
nurtured on the old wisdom. These men were not mere stupid 
reactionaries and Bourbons. On the contrary, they profoundly 
believed in the virtue of classical and literary study. Such 
authorities are not to be despised. They all had power and 
personality, and they themselves, and scores and hundreds of 
others who might be named, were the products of the old 
training. The idea that they should now be overruled by a few 
technical men seeking to magnify themselves is utterly prepos- 
terous. To them the "old paths" seemed to lead to the highest 
and most fruitful truth. 

Life's Work 

But there is other testimony, and of the highest value. It is to 
be found in the lives of those great men of affairs trained in 
the English universities. The Balliol type is perfectly well 
known. Some of the greatest men who have served England 
were trained at that famous college, and they have been men 
who "did things"— prime ministers, lawyers, judges, adminis- 
trators, viceroys, and governors. The present prime minister, 
Mr. Asquith, is himself a Balliol man. Mr. Balfour, the leader 
of the Opposition, was educated at Eton, and Trinity College, 
Cambridge. Lord Rosebery is an Oxford man. Gladstone, 
Salisbury, Macaulay, and a host of others were all fed on the 

54 



old studies. In our own country such men as President Taft, 
President Hadley of Yale, former President Wilson of Prince- 
ton — now, happily, Governor of New Jersey — Governor Bald- 
win of Connecticut, Chief Justice White, and many others 
prominent in public affairs, were all educated classically. Judg- 
ing the training both by those who have advocated it and those 
who have been bred from it, surely we must say that it has 
much in its favor. The question is, are we developing such 
men to-day? Undoubtedly, but we are not developing them 
by the new methods — and that is the point. Our product is 
becoming more and more specialized. We are training men 
away from public service rather than toward it. The man 
who takes a four-year course in science, giving only such at- 
tention as he is grudgingly permitted to give to the older 
studies, comes out of college unfit for anything except the 
particular task which he has been taught to perform. As Presi- 
dent Jordan has shown, we are no longer getting scientists, 
even, with a true love for science as science. So it does seem% 
as though there was something wrong. If that is so, we may 
well study the past, consider how it was that the classical course 
got itself established, and dwell somewhat on the fact that 
great men have championed it and been produced by it — men 
with a sort of general fitness, with an ability to turn their 
powers in several directions, men with an adaptation, not per- 
haps to any special task, but to life itself. As the author of the 
address already quoted from well says : "The business of life 
is not business, but life." That is a truth which the reformers 
persistently ignore. 

The True Ideal 

There does not thus seem to be any reason why the friends and 
lovers of liberal studies should assume an apologetic attitude, 
or allow themselves to be put on the defensive. It is not 
necessary for them to prove the soundness of their theories, 
for they have proved themselves, supported as they are by a 
great body of the highest sort of testimony, and by the ex- 
perience of the race. It is the innovators who are on the de- 
fensive—it is they who must prove that their experiment has 
succeeded. Right reason, too, is on the side of those who, like 
the Amherst men, would make at least some approach to the 

55 



old curriculum. The mistake of those who would continue 
things as they are is that they look at the matter solely from 
the point of view of the supposed good of the college, their 
idea being to make the college popular and to attract large 
numbers of students. But the college does not exist for itself, 
but for those to whom it ministers. The question thus is, not 
what is good for the institution, but what is good for 
the young people who attend it. Obviously, what they 
need most of all is a general training in the fundamentals, 
discipline, and as much culture as they can get. They 
must be brought into contact with the great minds of the race, 
with the treasures of art and literature. Not mere knowledge, 
but command of one's powers, is the thing to be sought. In 
this case, as in so many other cases, service of others is service 
of self. And so what is best for the pupil is, after all, best 
for the college. "The true university of these days," says 
Carlyle, "is a collection of books." The man who is not 
brought into intimate contact with books in his youth, who 
has not learned to love them and how to use them, suffers a 
loss which it is almost impossible to make good. So great is 
the sin of those who would divert the college boy from the 
library to the laboratory. That college which is true to its 
mission and function, which gives the best and most inspiring 
instruction in the essentials, and which sets and maintains a 
high standard, will never lack for patrons. The appeal of such 
an institution will, we may be sure, win an enthusiastic re- 
sponse. It will not only deserve success, but it will achieve it. 



56 



AN EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY 

Springfield Republican, editorial article, February 21, 1911 

"Few persons familiar with the conditions here and abroad," 
writes President Lowell of Harvard in his annual report, "will 
deny that respect for scholarship in American colleges is lamen- 
tably small." The causes for this development— and it is pre- 
eminently a development of the past thirty or forty years — are 
not regarded by educators as at all obscure. When "going to 
college" became fashionable in the numerous class possessed of 
wealth, for the most part newly acquired, and hungry for social 
prestige, the general tone of college life and the character of 
college ideals began to undergo a transformation. Why should 
young men who plan to succeed their fathers in the several 
commercial callings in which the family "pile" has been made 
seek to distinguish themselves as scholars? It is impossible 
to have a college crowded with students whose primary pur- 
pose is to gain social position and a set of swell acquaintances 
for use in later life, without, at the same time, having its at- 
mosphere profoundly affected by the alien ideals they breathe 
into it. Respect for scholarship declines, of course. And the 
mania for "student activities" of the widest possible range 
outside of the class-room and the study becomes inevitably 
what we see to-day — a consuming passion, apparently, of 
college life, against which college presidents and faculties strug- 
gle until they are so dead tired that they cannot tell whether 
they are in the main tent or the side-show. 

The newspaper published at the University of Chicago, the 
Daily Maroon, attracts attention just now by declaring its 
opposition to intercollegiate athletics as at present conducted. 
It is against athletics, it says, for the same reasons that it 
opposes the entire system of student activities which "has made 
the academic side of college education a mere incident." Ath- 
letics presents the extreme illustration of the tendency, so 
much deplored, toward that fatal loss of esteem for scholarship 

57 



among the student body. The richer, more largely attended, 
and more celebrated institutions have set such a pace in the 
"major sports" that the expense has become almost killing to 
those smaller and weaker colleges which endeavor to copy the 
methods of the leaders. A recent article in a college publica- 
tion — it was, of course, a dollar-mark appeal to the loyal alumni 
— was really pathetic in its description of the harrowing efforts 
of the athletics department to turn out "winning teams" on 
nothing a year. Consider the question of coaches. Nowadays, 
expensive coaches are indispensable, and they must be paid 
higher salaries than full professors, if "our college is to keep 
in the procession." It had become a serious question, evidently, 
whether that institution should retire utterly from the "major 
sports" because the alumni could not be depended upon to fur- 
nish thousands of dollars a year to pay itinerant young athletes 
exorbitant fees for coaching the team a few months. Of 
course the entire performance is getting to be an imposition 
upon the friends of those colleges which are frantically trying 
to conform to a standard of living that is unmistakably beyond 
their means. 

It is remarkable that some college does not perceive in this 
situation, to which athletics contributes merely its share, an 
opportunity to distinguish itself by being as different as possi- 
ble from the run of colleges. It is by no means improbable 
that the time has come when enthusiastic support would be 
given, by people who have retained somewhat the old-fash- 
ioned conception of the higher education, to an institution that 
would close its doors, if necessary, rather than surrender to 
that prevalent spirit which makes scholarship the "mere inci- 
dent" of a college training. If such an institution would reor- 
ganize "student activities" as determinedly as Stein reorgan- 
ized Prussia, if it would shoot a streak of sanity through the 
athletics mania, if it would enforce respect for scholarship 
or die in the attempt, we should have in America at last a 
college to be proud of. 

Since the special Committee of the Class of '85 made its 
highly interesting report to the Trustees of Amherst College 
regarding the wisdom of having that institution specialize in 
liberal culture and stop trying to compete with the universities 
and technical schools, there has been a gleam of hope in the 

58 



murky atmosphere. Few things more attractive have been 
offered in the way of an educational program in recent years 
to those people who have sons to educate rather than squander 
money on. Amherst, possibly, could combine the best points 
of several programs without adopting all the points of 
any in particular. But by admitting students under com- 
petitive examination, as suggested, and raising materially 
teachers' salaries, and bending every energy to the end 
that the ideal of scholarship should actually dominate the in- 
stitution to its uttermost corner, a new departure in American 
collegiate education might be scored that would astonish the 
land. 



59 



AMHERST'S OPPORTUNITY 

Boston Evening Transcript, December 31, 1910 

AN INNOVATION IN EDUCATION THE PLAN OF '85 

A Striking Memorial from the Members of That Class to the Trustees 
. . . They Would Pay the Professors More Money, Provide Only a 
Classical Curriculum, and Restrict the Students . . . The Aim to Bring 
Teacher and Student Together . . . Their Education Not as Special- 
ists, but as Citizens , . . The Scheme in Detail 

Amherst College faces a proposal of revolutionary change in 
its purpose, its standards and its methods. Much has been 
said during the past ten years of the alleged failure of the 
American college to give to its students that intellectual and 
moral fibre, that essential discipline and hardening of mental 
and moral muscle that is fairly to be required of the educated 
man, and that is a crying need in the conduct of our public life. 
The foremost men of the college and university world have 
frankly admitted that at least all other institutions than their 
own were somehow failing to meet the reasonable expectations 
of society. And not a few of these leaders have set themselves 
manfully to work in an effort to change the intellectual and 
moral current and standards of their own institutions. For 
the large and complex university, moving with the huge mo- 
mentum of numbers and custom, any radical change is a task 
of supreme difficulty. But for the small college already suffi- 
ciently equipped with land, buildings, and nearly so with funds, 
the setting up of a new and more adequate standard of general 
education is mainly a question of seeing the light and then hav- 
ing the moral courage to break out the path forward. 

Just What Amherst Would Do 

This is the unique opportunity of Amherst. The circum- 
stances of the case, and the great benefits to higher education 
in this country that would result from a hearty adoption of 

60 



the proposed plan are so striking that they deserve the close 
attention of all who concern themselves with the future of 
American education and American public life. Briefly, the 
proposed plan is for Amherst to confine itself to the providing 
of a broadly classical education, cutting off altogether its pro- 
fessional scientific courses ; that the standard of scholarship 
required of its students shall be high; that the students shall 
be selected by competitive examination for admission ; that the 
number of students shall be so restricted as surely to secure 
close personal relations between students and teachers; and 
finally, that the salaries of the teachers shall be indefinitely 
increased, so that the College may secure and retain the ser- 
vice, influence, and enthusiasm of the best men — so much has 
already been inconspicuously noted in the daily press ; but the 
importance of the new plan is hardly even suggested by this 
bare outline. 

In preface to a more detailed account of the new plan, some-% 
thing should be said of the educational conditions and the 
alumni and faculty sentiment out of which the new plan arose. 

It is a commonplace that within the past fifteen years the 
center of gravity of our American university and college system 
has suffered a considerable displacement. The rise of the great 
State universities, with their nominal tuition fees, their strongly 
"practical" instruction, and the comparatively great funds de- 
voted to their support has brought the great, privately en- 
dowed universities of the East into a new rivalry. For a time, 
numbers were taken as a nearly sufficient index of progress, 
but in the East this soon gave way to the providing of pro- 
fessional instruction of increasingly higher grade. Hence came 
the vast diversity of our present university conditions, offering 
every conceivable variety of special training, and seeming 
thereby to give up the power, if not even the disposition, to 
provide for the young man seeking a general education the 
strenuous intellectual discipline, the solid knowledge, and the 
poise and understanding that pertain to broad and high schol- 
arship. 

The Universities Too "Practical" and Utilitarian 

The tendencies in the universities that have given concern 
to the wisest friends of higher education have resulted from 

6i 



a great variety of causes. Chief among these has been the 
utilitarian, not to say the commercial, eye with which the public 
has been disposed to measure the value of university training. 
Rivalry in numbers, due partly to obscure, and partly to very- 
patent, financial motives, has led to the admission into the 
universities of many boys ill-equipped in either scholastic train- 
ing or general purpose and disposition to make good use of the 
opportunities put before them. Athletic reputation has proved 
an exceedingly corrupting influence, causing many boys to 
choose this place or that for reasons entirely foreign to serious 
interest in education ; and distracting them after their entrance 
with diversions and false standards which the best efforts of 
faculties have done not much to overcome. 

With the "small" colleges the same influences have been 
operative. The effects have been rather more detrimental than 
in the universities. In the effort to increase numbers, and thus 
to increase fees, and the gifts that may spring from the enthu- 
siasm of alumni, the small colleges have dangled the lure of 
athletics, and have perforce tempered the wind of scholarship 
requirements to their increasing flock of shorn lambs. Some of 
them have added to their normal academic courses semi-pro- 
fessional lines of training, thus entering into competition with 
the universities and technical schools in the doing of tasks for 
which they are quite inadequately equipped. The general result 
is that the small colleges furnish their students with a training 
that is, on the whole, distinctly mediocre, attempting tasks 
utterly beyond their capacity, and neglecting in large part the 
task that they were best fitted to perform adequately. 

This situation holds true of Amherst. The course of study 
has been improved during the past year by a rather rigid 
restriction of electives, but the College is burdened with a 
scientific course in which it cannot offer a training in any way 
comparable to similar courses in larger or special institutions. 
Athletics and "college life" are more powerful influences than 
scholarship. The salaries of teachers are far too low for pres- 
ent-day requirements, and the Faculty has suffered the loss of 
first-class men, and failure to secure others, for this reason. 
In short, Amherst, like other colleges, is not doing conspicu- 
ously well the work for which its position makes it suited. The 



62 



facts of the situation have been accurately appraised both 
within the Faculty and among the alumni. 



Amherst to Provide a Broader Training 

The address to the Trustees, presented by a Committee of the 
Class of 1885 last November, deals frankly with the needs of 
higher education in America, and with the necessity of Am- 
herst's casting its work in new lines if it is to do effective and 
valuable service under the new conditions of education. The 
Class of '85 contains many men prominent in educational work, 
and its committee of three which signed the address has pro- 
duced a paper of much sagacity and shrewdness. The Com- 
mittee consisted of E. Parmalee Prentice of New York City, 
chairman ; Ellsworth G. Lancaster, and Dr. W. G. Thayer, head 
of St. Mark's School, Southboro. 

First and foremost, the address urges that Amherst adopt 
as its exclusive task the providing of a liberal or classical edu- 
cation aimed not at fitting the student to secure quick pecuniary 
reward, but at preparing him for the broader duties of public 
life. It reviews the changing character of the higher education 
in this country, and draws the conclusion that Amherst has no 
high prospect in further competition with institutions whose 
resources enormously exceed hers. The present scheme of 
education, it asserts, leaves no place for Amherst. "The high 
school fits for the university, and the university for the selected 
calling. Amherst, on the other hand, demands a preparation 
not within the tendencies of the high school, and gives a course 
of training which does not fit for, but on the other hand, post- 
pones, preparation for a calling." 

"Amherst has stood," continues the address, "for a liberal or 
classical education — the old-fashioned course — and for many 
years there was in this respect no difference between Amherst 
and other institutions of higher education in this country. The 
value to the public of this training in making statesmen and 
leaders of public thought is even now unquestioned. It is a 
training in civics, in the history of government, in the develop- 
ment and significance of institutions, in the meaning of civili- 

63 



% 



zation — in brief, a training for public leadership, not a per- 
sonal equipment for a trade." The address quotes President 
Woodrow Wilson: 

"The American college," says Dr. Wilson, "has played a 
unique part in American life. ... It formed men who 
brought to their tasks an incomparable morale, a capacity 
that seemed more than individual, a power touched with 
large ideals. The liberal training which it sought to impart 
took no thought of any particular profession or business, 
but was meant to reflect in its few and simple disciplines 
the image of life and thought. Men were bred by it to no 
skill or craft or calling ; the discipline to which they were 
subjected had a more general object. It was meant to pre- 
pare them for the whole of life rather than some particular 
part of it. The ideals which lay at its heart were the gen- 
eral ideals of conduct, of right living and right thinking, 
which made them aware of a world moralized by prin- 
ciple, steadied and cleared of many an evil thing by true 
and catholic reflection and just feeling, a world not of 
interests but of ideas. Such impressions, such challenges 
to a man's spirit, such intimations of privilege and duty, 
are not to be found in the work of professional and tech- 
nical schools. They cannot be." 

The proposition for which Amherst stands, argues the ad- 
dress, is that preparation for some particular part of life does 
not make better citizens than, in President Wilson's phrase, 
preparation for the whole of it. This is the training which 
Amherst has given, and if now the College were publicly and 
definitely to stand forward as an exponent of classical learning 
in such modified course as modem scholarship may approve, 
the Committee asserts its belief that, with its history, its de- 
served reputation, and its present position, Amherst can take 
the place of leadership in this work. "This once done, the 
College will no longer appeal for support solely to its friends, 
but would have reason to expect the efficient support of all 
friends of classical education— that is, of the most conservative, 
thoughtful, and scholarly persons." 

64 



The Ill-Paid Amherst Faculty 
Turning next to the compensation of the Faculty, the address 
points out clearly the damage to Amherst and to the cause of 
the higher education that comes from the hardships and limita- 
tions due to insufficient salaries ; and the necessity of largely 
increased pay. 

Fourteen members of the Faculty receive $3000, four receive 
$2500, one receives $2200 ($600 of this being payment for 
special work this year), eleven receive $2000, four receive 
$1600, two receive $1400, one receives $1300, two receive 
$1200. The dean (one of the fourteen who receive $3000) 
receives also $1000 additional for his services in administra- 
tion. Assistants are not included in the list given above, since 
these men are not permanent members of the Faculty. 

The following eloquent statistics regarding the income, living 
expenses and annual deficit (so far as salary is concerned) of % 
the classes of the Faculty whose salaries are noted above were 
compiled from reports made in writing by thirty-nine indi- 
vidual teachers upon uniform blanks. Careful study of the 
remarks accompanying these reports shows that in many cases 
the expenditure is kept down to the point indicated only by 
economy verging upon hardship. Here are the figures, and 
they will well repay a close examination : 

Books, P , 

Salary Rent V° •' °^ education of ^ j ""^^^f'"^ Average 

hv.ng ch,Wr^en, over sllary last column 

$3000 $596 $2633 $807 $4036 $1036 $620 

2500 533 2000 416 2949 449 

2200 500 I 100 300 1900 -300 

2000 355 1474 476 2305 305 

1600 T,2>7 1323 638 2298 698 

1400 ZZZ 1335 405 2073 673 

1300 175 500 350 1025 -275 

1200 290 1025 362 1677 477 

In commenting on the facts disclosed by this table, the 
address goes into a somewhat detailed and highly significant 
explanation of the economic and social problem that confronts 
the professor dependent on such salaries as those noted. 

65 



The higher salaries, it notes, are in general paid to men of 
long service, who in tlie natural course of affairs are compelled 
to meet higher expenditures. Professors are more and more, 
as time passes, called upon to perform representative duties for 
the College ; their children are growing and must be educated, 
clothed, and fed; standards of living are entailed which are 
not necessary in the earlier period of the teacher's career. 
Higher salaries correspond not to a greater temptation to, but 
a greater need for, the increased expenditure which appears in 
the table. With this in mind, it is significant that at no period 
during a teacher's connection with the College is his salary- 
sufficient for his support. 

If the $300 surplus noted against the $2200 salary be con- 
sidered in the light of the fact that $600 of this salary is extra 
pay for special work during this year, the surplus should enter 
into the final average as a deficit of $300. With this change, it 
appears that the average outlay of the Amherst teacher exceeds 
his salary by $635. Almost without exception, the members 
of the Amherst Faculty are dependent for a fair degree of 
comfort in living upon income from sources other than their 
salaries. 

Cost of Living 50 % Higher in Last Ten Years 

During the last ten years the increase in the cost of living, as 
shown by averages of the estimates given by members of the 
Faculty, amounts to almost exactly thirty per cent. But this 
appears to be under the real truth. An independent investiga- 
tion of the matter has been based upon figures obtained from 
the books of Amherst tradesmen. Present-day prices were 
compared with the prices prevailing in the later nineties on the 
following items : Groceries, meats, clothing, coal, services (in- 
cluding those of domestics, mechanics, day laborers, etc.). The 
results of this investigation seem to show a distinctly greater 
increase than that indicated by the teachers' reports. 

The address presents, as of deep significance, the following 
comments from the member of the Amherst Faculty who made 
this independent investigation into prices and the conditions of 
living under the present salary scale. He says : 

"When I have indicated the increase in the cost of living 
based on increase in prices of commodities and services, 

66 



the story is by no means completely told. The standard of 
life which a college professor must now maintain entails 
an increase in expenditure, as compared with fifteen years 
ago, that statistics of prices do not show. It costs him 
more to maintain his former standard. But the change 
of standard enforced upon him by social changes and the 
sentiments of the college community forces an additional 
expenditure. Besides this, the progress of knowledge calls 
for an increase in facilities in the way of books, travel, 
and general equipment in order that he may keep abreast 
or ahead in the running and meet the demands of service 
to his institution. Such changes of standard in living and 
equipment cannot be reduced to statistics, but they are 
known to all college men. 

"So much on the increased cost of living. Let me indi- 
cate a method by which to judge of the adequacy of a col- 
lege professor's income. Some investigation has led me to 
the conclusion that at Amherst a college professor spends 
his income approximately as follows, with a family of 
four: Rent, 17%; fuel, 6%; lighting, 2%; food, 35%; 
clothing, 20% ; sundries, 20%. Assuming that he has a 
salary of $3000, that would mean $600 for sundries. But 
what does sundries cover? Such items as the following: 
Laundry, house-cleaning, kitchen supplies, repairs such as 
replacement of furniture, rugs, bed-clothing, etc. ; doctors' 
bills, dentistry, life insurance, subscriptions that he is 
called upon to make and wants to make, support of ath- 
letics and Y. M. C. A. benevolence, presents, books, travel, 
vacations, and the education of his children. 

"There are college professors who for years buy no 
books because they cannot afford it; who for the same 
reason do not go to the theater, do not subscribe $5 to the 
musical program, never ride in a parlor car, never have 
been to the sea-shore or to the mountains, and never could 
afford to take a sabbatical year to freshen up their life and 
their work." (During the sabbatical year at Amherst, 
only half-salary is paid.) 

The meaning of these facts could hardly be evaded even by 
one who wished to evade their unhappy significance. 

67 



In its comment on the necessity for limiting the number of 
students, the address touches pointedly on the devices and 
makeshifts that have been adopted in various universities to 
infuse individuality into the instruction, and a spirit of respect 
for scholarship into the student public. These devices it con- 
siders imperfect remedies for overcrowding. 

"The college cannot devote its whole strength and all 
its energies to the elevation of standards and improvement 
in the quality of its work, while at the same time it en- 
deavors to receive increasing numbers. At this point 
choice is inevitable, and it is in the neglect to meet this 
demand of existing and imperative conditions by a delib- 
erate decision that most of the small colleges have made 
their mistake. This is an error which Amherst can avoid. 
We are seekers for scholarship, not for numbers, and our 
position can be made clear and publicly distinctive only 
by limitation upon the number of our students. 

"Such a limitation being established, it is evident that 
the applicants for admission to the College must undergo 
some selective process — preferably, the Committee urge, 
by competitive examination. The honor of success in such 
a competition, the consciousness of having achieved indi- 
vidual recognition, in the field of scholarship, the esprit de 
corps which must result, would create at Amherst a con- 
dition such as now exists in no American college." 

The Lack of Leadership 

With this wise and inspiring plan before the Amherst public, 
the situation is in some respects extraordinary. The address 
has been referred to joint consideration by the instruction com- 
mittees of the Trustees and the Faculty. Among the Trustees, 
the Faculty, and the alumni, and even among the students, the 
plan has been received with a good deal of favor, though the 
idea of competitive examinations for admission seems to a few 
rather drastic. Amherst now has about five hundred students. 
It has abundant equipment, in land and buildings. The new 
plan would somewhat reduce the number of students, but be- 
tween the aid that may be relied on from graduates and from a 
new fund already nearly completed, there is no financial ob- 



stacle to the change, even including a marked increase in the 
salaries of the Faculty. Amherst seems to have within reach the 
easy accomplishment of an ideal whose pursuit is a heavy tax 
on President Lowell, and which burdens the head of more than 
one other university. In the face of all this opportunity there 
is no leadership— there is a lack of initiative that must impress 
at least some observers as little less than astonishing. It may 
well seem the duty of all who know, either by possession or by 
deprivation, the abiding, solid value of a classical education 
held to high standards to bestir themselves in support of the 
new Amherst. 

Benjamin Baker. 



69 



THE SMALL COLLEGE 

IT HAS A WELL-DEFINED AND IMPORTANT PLACE IN EDUCATION 

San Francisco Chronicle, editorial article, April 9, 191 1 

Some weeks ago there was a despatch from New York printed 
in the Chronicle and such other journals as consider educational 
news worth printing, to the efifect that Amherst College, in 
Massachusetts, proposed to discontinue instruction in science 
and become an old-fashioned classical college. 

The despatch was incorrect, as a letter from an alumnus 
informs us, the fact being that an influential committee of the 
alumni has recommended that the College reduce its present 
amount of instruction in science, but that it shall cease to 
confer the B.S. degree which, so far as it indicates anything, 
implies that the holder has a scientific equipment which fits 
him to undertake some branch of scientific service. 

Amherst College is an institution of some antiquity for this 
country, and, like other New England colleges, was founded 
at a time when the chief duty of an American college was to 
prepare earnest and devout young men for the Christian min- 
istry. If some turned out to be doctors or lawyers, so much 
the worse for them. In those days America had no leisure 
class, and collegiate training, except with a view to entering one 
of the three recognized "learned professions," was not taken 
into consideration. 

Amherst is typical of a considerable number of American 
colleges with moderate but gradually increasing endowment 
and a considerable body of alumni, but which are not so situ- 
ated as to be able to grow great and accumulate the enormous 
endowments required for the work of a large modern univer- 
sity. 

All these colleges— at least the older of them — have a history 
behind them precious to the memory of those who have helped 
make it, whether as instructors or students. Most of them, like 

70 



Amherst, are situated in pleasant country villages, with the 
best of moral environment, of which they are the chief attrac- 
tion, and around which most of the village activities revolve. 
The professors, with modest stipends, living the simple life, 
although usually unknown very far in the outer world, are the 
most highly respected citizens of the vicinity, and the president 
is a truly great man. The students, ranking in the order of 
their classes, have the pick of the company of the village girls. 
Writing in the memory of years spent at such a college, the 
life as one remembers it is idyllic. It recalls the traditions of 
the medieval cloister, free from the distractions and conten- 
tions of the outer world, with learning, not athletics, the com- 
munity ideal — the simple thoughts, the simple pleasures, the 
simple life. 

The question is what to do with these colleges. For equip- 
ping for the very strenuous life they cannot compete with the 
great universities, and ought not to try. There are great uni-^ 
versities enough, and all are enlarging their activities and need 
strengthening, not more competition. The degrees of the small 
colleges have not the commercial value of those of universities, 
nor are the college acquaintanceships so helpful in after life as 
those of the rich men's sons whom one comes to know, espe- 
cially if one happens to be a football hero. 

What is to be done with the small colleges depends on our 
conception of what they can do, and the Alumni Committee 
of Amherst College seems to have solved the problem for all. 
It is proposed that they become primarily builders of charac- 
ter based on broad culture, acquired under the inspiration of 
personal contact with earnest men in favorable environments. 
This the small colleges can do and the universities cannot do 
so well, for the reason that, with all their money, they are none 
of them able to bring men of power, character, culture, and 
maturity into constant personal contact with the students. The 
junior instructors are necessarily young men whose small salar- 
ies compel them to be constantly alert for better positions, and 
as a class they do not stay long enough in one place to absorb 
its atmosphere or impress themselves upon the student body. 
If they remain and advance, their spare time is absorbed in 
research or in the larger activities of the world about them. 
And the students themselves are so distracted by the various 

71 



student body activities, few of them character-building and 
some demoralizing, that normal development seems almost 
impossible. Of course, those who attend the universities with 
earnest purpose progress there as they would anywhere, and 
have the advantage of a range and equipment wholly beyond 
the reach of the small college. 

Certainly there is a demand — or at least a necessity — for such 
products of small colleges as these recommendations of the 
Amherst alumni contemplate. Undertaking nothing which they 
are not equipped to do thoroughly, the output of such institu- 
tions should be the choice spirits of their generation— those 
who both think and feel, but whose intellectual and emotional 
natures have developed under wholesome discipline and lofty 
inspiration. 

The one danger to which such institutions will be exposed 
is that as they become known they will begin to receive huge 
endowments and become fashionable. 



72 



THE FUTURE OF THE SMALLER COLLEGES 

New York Sun, editorial article, February 19, igii 

An "Address to the Trustees of Amherst College by the Class 
of 1885" represents a careful investigation into the declining 
popularity of the liberal classical courses in colleges and uni- 
versities and the increasing popularity of the courses that lead 
to degrees in science. The report is signed by E. Parmalee 
Prentice, a lawyer of New York ; President Ellsworth G. Lan- 
caster of Olivet College, and William G. Thayer, head master 
of St. Mark's School at Southboro, Massachusetts, represent- 
ing the class. It recommends that the College devote "all it# 
means to the indefinite increase of teachers' salaries" ; that 
the number of students received be limited to competitive ex- 
amination; and of more general interest to the college world 
is the request that Amherst should abolish its present course 
leading to the degree of Bachelor of Science and devote all its 
resources to a modified classical course, with a Bachelor of 
Arts degree for those who qualify. This is radical conser- 
vatism. Twenty-five years ago there was no occasion for such 
a recommendation. 

Although Amherst and Williams have each increased in size 
nearly forty per cent, in the last twenty years, they cannot hope 
to compete in their technical courses with the large universities, 
with their heavily endowed schools of science. Even the 
academic departments of these same universities in the East 
and in the very important Western State institutions have not 
kept pace with the growth of other departments. An increasing 
number of students each year pass from the high schools into the 
universities for a technical training to prepare them for some 
professional or commercial career. The high school fits for the 
university, and the university fits for the selected calling. Such 
a college as Amherst gives a course of training that does not 
fit for, but postpones, the preparation for a calling. Science 
is taught as a part of a liberal education only far enough to 

7Z 



enable the graduates to enter the best professional schools. 
The committee whose report we are considering believes that 
the university and the college should each have its distinctive 
field, and that it is wasteful of the college to expend any 
energy in an attempt to compete with the university in techni- 
cal training. They illustrate this with the statement that one- 
quarter of the students at Amherst to-day are studying for a 
Bachelor of Science degree. Fewer men each year are taking 
Greek, not only in the fitting schools but in the colleges. In 
fact, President Harris of Amherst has said sadly that Greek 
is now almost a lost cause. 

With due emphasis on the fact that the world needs engineers 
and chemists and technically trained men, this address to the 
Trustees of Amherst upholds the proposition that for states- 
men, leaders of public thought, for literature, and indeed for 
all work that demands culture and breadth of view, nothing 
can take the place of a liberal classical education. There are 
probably many who will agree with this report in the assertion 
that the duty of institutions of higher education is not wholly 
performed when the youth of this country are passed from 
high schools to universities to be "vocationalized," but that 
there is a most important work to be performed by an institu- 
tion that stands aside from this straight line to pecuniary re- 
ward as an exponent of classical learning in such modified 
courses as modern scholarship may approve. 



AMHERST A CLASSICAL COLLEGE 

New York World, February 12, 191 1 

Amherst's reported intention of running a real college, of 
sticking to classical culture, as the plan is understood, and 
providing students with an academic education mainly, may 
not suit "progressive" educators. But the plan will be indorsed 
by many old alumni of other colleges as a departure from the 
prevailing cult of the practical in college education. Amherst 
will give a further basis of justification to Webster's well- 
known eulogy of "the small college" by following the old clas- 
sical curriculum and leaving the isms and ologies to the larger 
institutions. 

74 



THE AMHERST IDEA 

Sihiae, published by the Classical Club, Normal College, New York City, 
editorial article, February, 1911 

The Class of '85, Amherst College, has presented an "Address 
to the Trustees" urging the adoption of a new policy, of which 
the salient points are the following: (i) Limitation of the 
number of students; (2) Admission by competitive examina- 
tion; (3) The use of "all its means" for the indefinite increase 
of teachers' salaries; (4) Abolition of the B.S. degree; (5) 
The adoption of a single course of study, described as "a modi- 
fied classical course." This policy is now under discussion by • 
the Faculty and the Trustees ; on their decision rests the most 
important question, it is safe to say, that now confronts not 
only Amherst, but also a large number of American colleges 
which in situation, size, and spirit have, like Amherst, re- 
mained truer to the historic type than has been possible for our 
overgrown universities. 

Silvae is primarily interested, of course, in the part assigned 
to the classics in this proposed course of study. The address 
does not urge (as has been mistakenly reported) that the 
sciences should be omitted from the curriculum. And no sensi- 
ble classicist would approve such a scheme. But it does pre- 
sent cogent reasons why Amherst may well devote itself to a 
type of education in which well-tested, well-organized, well- 
taught classical studies are to be neither ignored nor minimized. 
There are many places where technical subjects can be prof- 
itably studied, where professions can be anticipated, and "voca- 
tions" assured. There is, surely, room and need for at least 
one institution where the old-fashioned humanities can exist 
on some other terms than the usual contemptuous tolerance. 

This address is only one among many signs that American 
educators are realizing how much too far the reaction against 
the study of Greek and Latin has gone. Even Mr. Charles 

75 



Francis Adams, the writer of the once-famous pamphlet on 
Greek as a "College Fetich," is now reported to maintain that 
at least one classical language ought to be included in every 
student's college course. If it were any longer the fashion to 
quote Latin, it might be remarked, with Ergasilus in "The 
Captives" : 

"Tum denique homines nostra intellegimus bona 
Quom quae in potestate habuimus ea amisimus." 

Yet even if the classics were to be utterly banished from the 
curriculum, the Amherst proposal would be eminently worth 
trying. A group of competent, well-paid teachers, a uniform, 
well-devised curriculum, a manageable number of adequately 
prepared students— such a combination should produce unique 
results, far-reaching in their influence on national culture. It 
sounds like a new chapter in the "Day-Dreams of a School- 
master." Is Amherst daring enough to make it a reality? 



76 



The Classical Weekly, editorial article, February i8, 191 1 

Other matters have crowded out, for a time, the consideration 
of a most interesting and important document in regard to the 
future of our small colleges. I refer to an address submitted 
to the Trustees of Amherst College by the Class of 1885. 

With the enormous additions in recent years to the re- 
sources of our great universities, whether private, as are most 
of the Eastern institutions, or public, like the Western institu- 
tions, the question of the future of the small college has become 
more and more a burning one. Scientific instruction, as at 
present carried on, requires such an expensive plant that only 
in the great institutions can it be adequately provided for. 
Our smaller colleges have neither the equipment nor the in- 
structors necessary for those who are looking forward to a 
life-work in what may be called scientific fields. The alumni 
of Amherst College, frankly recognizing this situation, have 
made the rather revolutionary suggestion that young men 
seeking a scientific training should not go to Amherst at all, 
but should try such institutions as the Massachusetts Institute 
of Technology. What, then, is left for the small college? Has 
it any function at all? This address asserts positively that it 
has, and proceeds to define it as in general the training of men 
for the larger life of the community, "a training which should 
be undergone for the sake of learning and for the benefit of 
the State." This training is, in brief, the old classical training 
modified to meet the modern conditions of human interests. 
With the further suggestions in the report as to the necessity 
of raising salaries of professors so that they can be adequate 
teachers, I have nothing to do. 

It seems to be high time to distinguish clearly what the 
advocates of vocational training really have in view. They 
put forward a very specious plea that a child's training should 
fit him for what he is going to do in life. They ignore entirely 
the other side. They have no concern with what a man is 

77 



going to he in life. The conditions of life have been profoundly 
modified by scientific discoveries made by men, many of whom 
had no personal influence at all, but the majority of those who 
make their living by engineering or the other so-called voca- 
tional pursuits are not going to modify human conditions in this 
fashion. The question with them is not so much what they 
are going to do as what they are going to be, what influence 
they are going to exert by their own personality upon their 
neighbors. It is a significant as well as unfortunate fact that 
the life of our nation has been and is being directed almost 
entirely by men who have no experience in statesmanship. 
They do not get this experience, nor even the preliminary 
breadth of view, from vocational training. They can only get 
it from a study of the world movements and world influences 
that have been moulding the life and the thinking of man for 
centuries upon centuries. That is a modern classical education. 
Our present view of the classical education does not mean one 
limited to the old curriculum of Latin, Greek, and mathematics, 
but the ancient literatures must have an important place in any 
such training. The proper place for such an education is in the 
small college and not in the large university ; in the small college 
men have time to grow instead of hustle, the object in view 
is primarily life and not money. Amherst could not do better 
than follow the suggestions of this address, and many other 
smaller colleges would do well to give them serious attention. 

Gonzalez Lodge. 



78 



A NEW PLAN FOR AMHERST 

Harper s Weekly, editorial article. May 20, 1911 

In the June number of Harper's Magazine, Mr. E. Parmalee 
Prentice, of New York, describes the proposal, now under con- 
sideration and likely, we understand, to be adopted, to change 
the policy of Amherst College, abandon all effort and intention 
to compete in numbers with other colleges, and take what 
measures are possible to attract a limited number of able and 
zealous students, and give them four years of the best procur- 
able general preparation for work in life. The chief changes 
suggested are to raise the standard of admission and of study* 
after admission, limit the number of students, and devote the 
resources of the institution, not to buildings, grounds, and ex- 
pansion, but "to the indefinite increase of teachers' salaries." 

A fair trial of this experiment would be interesting to every 
friend and student of education in the country. If Amherst 
can operate a system of education that will attract abler young 
men, and turn out abler and more thorough scholars than the 
other colleges, she will confer a great benefit on the country, 
not only by providing useful men, but by demonstrating im- 
proved processes of training. The amount of time and money 
that is spent in the great popular universities of the East in 
giving lazy boys the mere rudiments of mental training is a 
sorrow to lamenting educators. It will go on, no doubt, with 
all its vast provision for the social and athletic side of college 
life, and immense diversion to them of time and attention, 
until it is demonstrated somewhere that for really ambitious 
youths there is something better offered which it will pay them 
to embrace. Inspiring teachers are nine tenths of the battle of 
education. How interesting is this idea of paying out money, 
not for advertisement, scholarships, and the provision and 
operation of huge plants for the accommodation of boys who 
want to play, but for "the indefinite increase of salaries" of 

79 



men fit to inspire and instruct boys who want to work ! Let us 
hope Amherst will try it. It will take a good while— twenty 
years, say — to give it a fair test. There must be time to see 
what sort of a product the renovated Amherst can turn out, and 
how it compares in human efficiency with the men who emerge 
from the ruck of the great universities. For, after all, the 
crowd of a great university is a school in itself, out of which 
some able men get valuable lessons. 



See also the article on The Amherst Idea, in Harper's Maga- 
zine for June, 191 1, under the title, "A New Opportunity for 
A Small College." 



80 



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